"It was a joyful v'ice, but I knowed he'd seen my play. I dropped them cards.
"'One minute, Pete,' says I. I called across the table to Charlie, 'Show openers and win!' And when he laid down them bullets I'd give him with my own hands, my heart broke inside me. But I couldn't stand for a crooked play seen by Old Pete.
"I hopped up from the table and shook his hand, I shook Maggy's hand, where she stood, smilin' bashful, and then I shook the hand of a strange gent in black clothes, whose name was Mr. Somethin'-or-other.
"Pete explained to me that the gent was a minister travelin'
through the country, who'd offered him and Maggy a ride to town.
'We thought we might as well get hitched at the same time,' says
Pete, 'and I sure wanted to see you, Zeke.'
"'Yes,' says Maggy. 'It wouldn't seem right to get married without you bein' there, Mr. Scraggs. To think of what you've done for Pete! And that Charley High-ball there is just the blessedest angel that ever was! Why, he got some stuff in the woods and put it on Pete's back, and made him well in a minute, you might say. And there warn't nothin' he wouldn't do for us. And I'm just the happiest woman ever was,' says Maggy, wipin' her eyes on her apron some more.
"'Well!' says I, brisk, tryin' to forgit that lost fifty. 'Why don't you and Pete sign the pledge right here and now?—how's that, friend?' I asks the minister.
"'Why, ah! says he. 'Ah! It doesn't seem quite the proper place—'
"'What's the matter with this place?' says Jim. He took a great pride in his saloon. He had glass mirrors up that cost him a hundred plunks apiece. 'If you think,' says he, 'that there's a prettier little joint in town than this, why, don't let me keep you.'
"That minister was cut out fer the business. He hedged his bet so quick, I admired him.
"'That's just it,' he says loud and hearty. 'I look upon matrimony as a solemn affair, and I was afraid our friends would be distracted from the seriousness of the ceremony by the surroundings.'