Mr. Scraggs Part 16

"Of course there was more talk, but the lieutenant was a good enough kid, and when he see all the boys laughin' he give in and smiled himself.

"'Well, you long-legged statue of melancholy,' says he, 'I suppose I'll have to let it go, but I'll shoot you, sure as there is shootin', if you ever play a trick like that on me again. What kind of a fool are you to stay here in the middle of an outbreak, anyhow? Now wake up your friend and come with us.'

"'Thanky,' says I; 'but hold--is the road safe to town?'

'"Sure; we've cleaned 'em, all but one bunch.'

"'Well,' says I, 'then Percy and me'll just amble back together the way we come. I don't want him to know nothing about any trouble.'

"After chewin' for a while he consented, and away went the army.

"So bimeby Percy woke up and said he'd had a nice nap and felt refreshed and--um--invigorated, and him and me went back to town, and he never suspicioned ther'd been an Injun risin', soldiers nor nothin'. I have felt like offering one hundred dollars' reward to the person who'd produce something that Percy would suspect. And whenever I think of that my spirits lift to that extent I could almost go out and get married again.

"And this here ticker I set great store by, because it come from Percy and says inside of it, 'To E. G. Washington Scraggs, in memory of our beautiful friendship, from Percival Mervin'--and that to a tough old Mormon like me! Well, he was one darned nice little man."