“No,” said Steve; “a middling girl would be like a horse that would always trot—too slow for me if I want to go fast, and a nuisance to have to hold in if I want to walk.”
“I knew a gal once——” said Darby the Bull, and paused.
“And a safe way to know her too, Darby,” cut in Steve. “But when you marry her you must know her for always.”
“I asked ’er to marry me—I was half drunk at the time—an’ she said if I meant it I was a fool, an’ if I didn’t I was a rogue, and either ways she was better without me. I allus remembered that though I never knew just what she meant.”
“Did you still mean it when you sobered?” said Steve, chuckling.
“I did,” said Darby, solemnly.
“Then she was right, only there was a pair of you,” said Steve. “You were a fool to ask her, and she was another not to say yes.”
Darby the Bull looked puzzled. “D’you think every man that marries is a fool then?” said Whip Thompson.
“I wish I could think so,” said Steve, gravely, but with his eyes twinkling, “but I’m afraid not, worse luck for him.”
“You’d think women was man-eaters t’ hear you,” said Jack Ever.