I hate sentimental bosh as much as you hate slang , and should have been a bachelor to this day if I had n't seen Kitty jest as I did . You see , I 'd been too busy larkin ' round to get time for marryin ' , till a couple of years ago , when I did up the job double-quick , as I 'd like to do this thunderin ' slow one , hang it all ! '' `` Halt a minute till I give a look , for this picket is n't going to be driven in or taken while I 'm on guard . '' Down his beat went Thorn , reconnoitring river , road , and swamp , as thoroughly as one pair of keen eyes could do it , and came back satisfied , but still growling like a faithful mastiff on the watch ; performances which he repeated at intervals till his own turn came . `` I did n't have to go out of my own State for a wife , you 'd better believe , '' began Dick , with a boast , as usual ; `` for we raise as fine a crop of girls thar as any State in or out of the Union , and do n't mind raisin ' Cain with any man who denies it . I was out on a gunnin ' tramp with Joe Partridge , a cousin of mine , -- poor old chap ! he fired his last shot at Gettysburg , and died game in a way he did n't dream of the day we popped off the birds together . It ai n't right to joke that way ; I wo n't if I can help it ; but a feller gets awfully kind of heathenish these times , do n't he ? '' `` Settle up them scores byme-by ; fightin ' Christians is scurse raound here . Fire away , Dick . '' `` Well , we got as hungry as hounds half a dozen mile from home , and when a farmhouse hove in sight , Joe said he 'd ask for a bite , and leave some of the plunder for pay . I was visitin ' Joe , did n't know folks round , and backed out of the beggin ' part of the job ; so he went ahead alone . We 'd come out of the woods behind the house , and while Joe was foragin ' , I took a reconnoissance . The view was fust-rate , for the main part of it was a girl airin ' beds on the roof of a stoop . Now , jest about that time , havin ' a leisure spell , I 'd begun to think of marryin ' , and took a look at all the girls I met , with an eye to business . I s ` pose every man has some sort of an idee or pattern of the wife he wants ; pretty and plucky , good and gay was mine , but I 'd never found it till I see Kitty ; and as she did n't see me , I had the advantage and took an extra long stare . '' `` What was her good p ` ints , hey ? '' `` Oh , well , she had a wide-awake pair of eyes , a bright , jolly sort of a face , lots of curly hair tumblin ' out of her net , a trig little figger , and a pair of the neatest feet and ankles that ever stepped . ` Pretty , ' thinks I ; ` so far so good . ' The way she whacked the pillers , shook the blankets , and pitched into the beds was a caution ; specially one blunderin ' old feather-bed that would n't do nothin ' but sag round in a pigheaded sort of way , that would have made most girls get mad and give up .
XXXXX did n't , but just wrastled with it like a good one , till she got it turned , banged , and spread to suit her ; then she plumped down in the middle of it , with a sarcy little nod and chuckle to herself , that tickled me mightily .
Dick Kitty blunderin gunnin havin minute pillers raound reconnoissance right