42 LIFE IN THE FAR WEST. 



world ; and by a flirtation over the corn-cobs with big 

 Pete, La Bonte"'s former and only rival, struck so hard a 

 blow at the latter's heart, that on the moment his brain 

 caught fire, blood danced before his eyes, and he became 

 like one possessed. Pete observed and enjoyed his strug- 

 gling emotion better for him had he minded his corn- 

 shelling alone ; and the more to annoy his rival, paid the 

 most sedulous attention to pretty Mary. 



Young La Bonte" stood it as long as human nature, at 

 boiling heat, could endure ; but when Pete, in the exulta- 

 tion of his apparent triumph, crowned his success by en- 

 circling the slender waist of the girl with his arm, and 

 snatching a sudden kiss, he jumped upright from his seat, 

 and seizing a small whisky-keg which stood in the centre 

 of the corn-shellers, he hurled it at his rival, and crying to 

 him , hoarse with passion, " to follow if he was a man," he 

 left the house. 



At that time, and even now, in the remoter States of the 

 western country, rifles settled even the most trivial differ- 

 ences between the hot-blooded youths ; and of such fre- 

 quent occurrence and invariably bloody termination did 

 these encounters become, that they scarcely produced suffi- 

 cient excitement to draw together half-a-dozen spectators. 



In the present case, however, so public was the quarrel, 

 and so well known the parties concerned, that not only the 

 people who had witnessed the affair, but all the neighbour- 

 hood, thronged to the scene of action, in a large field in 

 front of the house, where the preliminaries of a duel 

 between Pete and La Bont6 were being arranged by their 

 respective friends. 



Mary, when she discovered the mischief her thoughtless- 

 ness was likely to occasion, was almost beside herself with 

 grief, but she knew how vain it would be to attempt to 

 interfere. The poor girl, who was most ardently attached 

 to La Bonte, was carried swooning into the house, where 

 all the women congregated, and were locked in by old 

 Brand, who, himself an old pioneer, thought but little of 

 bloodshed, but refused to let the " women folk " "witness 

 the affray. 



