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106 outfit, an' from over Redeye way, was stuffin' down them bonbons like they was ten-cent gumdrops. An' Sally never ate a-one."

"She did that just to tease you," said Ruth, sagely.

"Huh!" grunted Ike. "I never laid out to hurt her feelin's none. Dunno why she should give me the quirt. Why, I've been hangin' about her an' tryin' to show her how much I think of her for years! She must know I wanter marry her. An' I got a good bank account an' five hundred head o' steers ter begin housekeepin' on."

"Does Sally know all that?" asked Ruth, slyly.

"Great Peter!" ejaculated Iket. [sic] "She'd oughter. Ev'rybody else in the county does."

"But did you ever ask Sally right out to marry you?" asked the Eastern girl.

"She never give me a chance," declared Ike, gruffly.

"Chance!" gasped Ruth, wanting to laugh, but being too kind-hearted to do so. "What sort of a chance do you expect?"

"I never git to talk with her ten minutes at a time," grumbled Ike.

"But why don't you make a chance?"

"Great Peter!" cried the foreman again. "I can't throw an' hawg-tie her, can I? I never can