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Lin McLean-Part9_Owen Wister(1860-1938)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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Australia, Mexico, and several States of the Union, and am anxious to

exhibit my system. If your Legislature will appropriate a sum to cover,



as I said, merely my necessary expenses--say $350 (three hundred and

fifty dollars)--for half an inch I will guarantee you that quantity of



rain or forfeit the money. If I fail to give you the smallest fraction of

the amountcontracted for, there is to be no pay. Kindly advise me of



what date will be most convenient for you to have the shower. I require

twenty-four hours' preparation. Hoping a favorable reply,



"I am, respectfully yours,

"Robert Hilbrun"



"Will the Legislature do it?" inquired Ogden in good faith.

The Governor laughed boisterously. "I guess it wouldn't be



constitutional," said he.

"Oh, bother!" said Ogden.



"My dear man," the Governor protested, "I know we're new, and our women

vote, and we're a good deal of a joke, but we're not so progressively



funny as all that. The people wouldn't stand it. Senator Warren would fly

right into my back hair." Barker was also new as Governor.



"Do you have Senators here too?" said Ogden, raising his eyebrows. "What

do they look like? Are they females?" And the Governor grew more



boisterous than ever, slapping his knee and declaring that these Eastern

men were certainly out of sight." Ogden, however, was thoughtful.



"I'd have been willing to chip in for that rain myself," he said.

"That's an idea!" cried the Governor. "Nothing unconstitutional about



that. Let's see. Three hundred and fifty dollars--"

"I'll put up a hundred," said Ogden, promptly. "I'm out for a Western



vacation, and I'll pay for a good specimen."

The Governor and I subscribed more modestly, and by noon, with the help



of some livelyminded gentlemen of Cheyenne, we had the purse raised. "He

won't care," said the Governor, "whether it's a private enterprise or a



municipal step, so long as he gets his money."

"He won't get it, I'm afraid," said Ogden. "But if he succeeds in



tempting Providence to that extent, I consider it cheap. Now what do you

call those people there on the horses?"



We were walking along the track of the Cheyenne and Northern, and looking

out over the plain toward Fort Russell. "That is a cow-puncher and his



bride," I answered, recognizing the couple.

"Real cow-puncher?"



"Quite. The puncher's name is Lin McLean."

"Real bride?"



"I'm afraid so."

"She's riding straddle!" exclaimed the delighted Ogden, adjusting his



glasses. "Why do you object to their union being holy?"

I explained that my friend Lin had lately married an eating-house lady



precipitately and against my advice.

"I suppose he knew his business," observed Ogden.



"That's what he said to me at the time. But you ought to see her--and

know him."



Ogden was going to. Husband and wife were coming our way. Husband nodded

to me his familiar offish nod, which concealed his satisfaction at



meeting with an old friend. Wife did not look at me at all. But I looked

at her, and I instantly knew that Lin--the fool!--had confided to her my



disapproval of their marriage. The most delicate specialty upon earth is

your standing with your old friend's new wife.



"Good-day, Mr. McLean," said the Governor to the cow-puncher on his

horse.



"How're are yu', doctor," said Lin. During his early days in Wyoming the

Governor, when as yet a private citizen, had set Mr. McLean's broken leg



at Drybone. "Let me make yu' known to Mrs. McLean," pursued the husband.

The lady, at a loss how convention prescribes the greeting of a bride to



a Governor, gave a waddle on the pony's back, then sat up stiff, gazed

haughtily at the air, and did not speak or show any more sign than a cow



would under like circumstances. So the Governor marched cheerfully at

her, extending his hand, and when she slightly moved out toward him her



big, dumb, red fist, he took it and shook it, and made her a series of

compliments, she maintaining always the scrupulous reserve of the cow.



"I say," Ogden whispered to me while Barker was pumping the hand of the

flesh image, "I'm glad I came." The appearance of the puncher-bridegroom



also interested Ogden, and he looked hard at Lin's leather chaps and

cartridge-belt and so forth. Lin stared at the New-Yorker, and his high



white collar and good scarf. He had seen such things quite often, of

course, but they always filled him with the same distrust of the man that






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