“And Sing Lung could play his fiddle!� Nell exclaimed. “That would be great!�
“Then it’s settled!� Belle cried. “A cowboy dance! Teddy, you can be master of ceremonies. Roy can be manager. We’ll have it tomorrow night!�
CHAPTER XVI
BUG EYE’S ARRIVAL
As Nick Looker said, “The day that the dance was to be that night dawned bright an’ fair.�
As manager of the entertainment, Roy had to see to it that the floor was prepared, the furniture moved, and everything made ready for the great occasion. Although Gus Tripp, because he had a slight fever, was forbidden by the doctor to take part in the festivities, he played the part of critical adviser to the rest of the punchers. From his bedside, he became a director of manly fashions, with the success of a Beau Brummel. Ethel overheard him speak to Jim Casey, who had approached him with a question concerning the wearing of a “diamond� stickpin in a green tie:
“Well, now, Jim, you gotta to use restraint in yore manner of dress.â€� Gus declared. “The correctly appointed gentleman don’t never wear loud clothes. As George Beaumont Fletcher says, when you come outer a drawing-room—that’s a high-hat name fer picture gallery—no one ought to be able to tell what you had on. That don’t mean you should go in a bathin’ suit. It means you should be able to march in front of a herd of yearlings without stampedin’ ’em. Now let me see that pin, Jim. Put her in the tie. Now—jest stand over a bit more—by the window. There! Um—no, I’m afraid not, Jim. She don’t match. She clashes! Yore dress should be like a symfunny ochestry, Jim. Everything’s gotta match. Now if you was to put that pin in a red tie, instead of a green one, she might do O. K. Yep—a red tie is what you need! Then come back an’ let me see how she looks.â€�
There were few who dared dispute Gus’s taste in the matter of clothes, but among these insurgents was Pop Burns. He flatly refused to listen to Gus.
“I ain’t no dude,� Pop proclaimed forcibly. “If I can’t put on decent clothes to go to a jamboree without a New Mexican buckeroo tellin’ me, I’ll dry up an’ blow away. I suppose if Gus didn’t have a busted arm, he’d be puttin’ on spats an’ carryin’ a cane. Huh! I goes like a man, not like a bloomin’ fashion dummy!�
But for all Pop’s protests, the preparations went forward with gusto. Strange to relate, the general store at Eagles was completely stripped of green ties. To Teddy, this was a mystery until he happened to hear Norine humming “The Wearing of the Green.� Then Teddy nodded his head sagely and grinned.
The first thing Nell and Ethel had thought of after it had been decided to have the dance was, naturally, their “party dresses.� Each girl had brought one evening gown with her, but these were fifteen miles away at the 8 X 8. Belle it was who solved the problem.