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 It looked as if it was. He took out his watch. There was a long silence.

"Good-bye, Amandy; I always loved you," said the cowboy.

Amandy burst into tears.

"Oh, it's shameful!" she sobbed. "Oh, Paw, you shame me awful."

"One minute gone," said Old Bill.

"If you don't love me, don't you merry me," said Prentiss.

Amandy wept bitterly.

"I—like you some," said Amandy, with her eyes to the ground.

"Two minutes," said Bill.

"If you'd rather merry Joyce or Morgan, don't you mind me," said the cowboy. "I kin die, Amandy." George spoke.

"Bill, mebbe I was wrong" he began.

"Silence," said his brother; "’tis too late for you to be wrong. 'Tis marriage or immejit death."

"Oh, mother!" sobbed Amandy. But Mis' Higginson sat down with an apron over her head so as to avoid seeing anyone killed.