mistake, Jinny. I've took too much whiskey. I'm older than I ought to
be. I oughtn't never to have had a whiskey-still, an' I wouldn't have
drunk so much. I got money--money for you, Jinny, for you an' Jake, but
I've lost what I'll never git back. I'm afeard to go down the river with
him. I'd go smash in the Dog Nose Rapids. I got no nerve. I can't hunt
the grizzly any more, nor the puma, Jinny. I got to keep to common
shootin', now and henceforth, amen! No, I'd go smash in Dog Nose
Rapids."

She caught his hands impulsively. "Don't you fret, Uncle Tom. You've
bin a good uncle to me, and you've bin a good friend, and you ain't the
first that's found whiskey too much for him. You ain't got an enemy in
the mountains. Why, I've got two or three--"

"Shucks! Women--only women whose beaux left 'em to follow after you.
That's nothing, an' they'll be your friends fast enough after you're
married tomorrow."

"I ain't going to be married to-morrow. I'm going down to Bindon
to-night. If Jake's mad, then it's all over, and there'll be more
trouble among the women up here."

By this time they had entered the other room. The old man saw the white
petticoat on the chair. "No woman in the mountains ever had a petticoat
like that, Jinny. It'd make a dress, it's that pretty an' neat. Golly,
I'd like to see it on you, with the blue skirt over, and just hitched up
a little."

"Oh, shut up--shut up!" she said in sudden anger, and caught up the
petticoat as though she would put it away; but presently she laid it down