LIFEINTHEFARWEST. 55 



However, like a thoughtless beaver-kitten, he put his foot into 

 a trap one fine day, set by Mary Brand, a neighbor's daughter, 

 and esteemed " some punkins," or in other words, toasted as the 

 beauty of Memphis County, by the susceptible Mississippi ans. 

 From that moment he was "gone beaver;" "he felt queer," he 

 said, " all over, like a buffalo shot in the lights ; he had no relish 

 for mush and molasses ; homminy and johnny cakes failed to excite 

 his appetite. Deer and turkeys ran by him unscathed ; he didn't 

 know, he said, whether his rifle had hind-sights or not. He felt 

 bad, that was a fact ; but what ailed him he didn't know." 



Mary Brand — Mary Brand — Mary Brand ! the old Dutch clock 

 ticked it. Mary Brand ! his head throbbed it when he lay down 

 to sleep. Mary Brand ! his rifle-lock spoke it plainly when he 

 cocked it, to raise a shaking sight at a deer, Mary Brand, Mary 

 Brand I the whip-poor-will sung it, instead of her own well-known 

 note ; the bull-frogs croaked it in the swamp, and musquitoes 

 droned it in his ear as he tossed about his bed at night, wakeful, 

 and striving to think what ailed him. 



"S^Hio could that strapping young fellow, who passed the door 

 just now, be going to see ? Mary Brand : Mary Brand. And 

 who can Big Pete Herring be dressing that silver fox-skin so care- 

 fully for ? For whom but Mary Brand ? And who is it that 

 jokes, and laughs, and dances, with all the " boys" but him ; ani 

 why ? 



Who but Mary Brand : and because the love-sick booby care- 

 fully avoids her. 



" And Mary Brand herself — what is she like ?" 



" She's * some' now ; that is a fact, and the biggest kind of 

 punkin at that," would have been the answer from any man, 

 woman, or child in Memphis County, and truly spoken too ; always 

 understanding that the pumpkin is the fruit by which the ne-plus- 

 ultra of female perfection is expressed among the figuratively- 

 speaking westerns. 



