The Man Next Door   By: Emerson Hough (1857-1923)

by

EMERSON HOUGH

Author of The Covered Wagon, North of 36, Etc.

Illustrated by Will Grefé

New York Grosset & Dunlap Publishers

Made in the United States of America

Copyright, 1917, by Emerson Hough Copyright, 1916, by The Curtis Publishing Company

[Illustration: "'Well,' says she, 'we never played anything for pikers, did we, dad?'" (Page 35)]

TO THE MEN WITH WHOM I RODE IN THE OLD DAYS

CONTENTS

Chapter Page I. How Come Us to Move 1 II. Where We Threw In 18 III. Us Living in Town 29 IV. Us and Christmas Eve 37 V. Us and the Home Ranch 49 VI. Us and Them Better Things 60 VII. What Their Hired Man Done 69 VIII. How Old Man Wright Done Business 91 IX. Us and Their Fence 99 X. Us Being Alderman 114 XI. Us and the Freeze Out 123 XII. Us and a Accidental Friend 129 XIII. Them and the Range Law 144 XIV. How Their Hired Man Come Back 150 XV. The Commandment That Was Broke 162 XVI. How I Was Foreman 167 XVII. Him and the Front Door 174 XVIII. How Tom Stacked Up 185 XIX. Them and Bonnie Bell 194 XX. What Our William Done 201 XXI. Her Pa's Way of Thinking 212 XXII. Me and Their Line Fence 216 XXIII. Tom and Her 220 XXIV. How Bonnie Bell Left Us All 234 XXV. Me and Them 253 XXVI. How I Went Back 260 XXVII. How I Quit Old Man Wright 267 XXVIII. The Hole in the Wall 273 XXIX. How the Game Broke 277 XXX. How It Come Out After All 289

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Facing Page "'Well,' says she, 'we never played anything for pikers, did we, dad?'" Frontispiece "'Well,' says he, 'our dog is more of a trench fighter.'" 74 "'I know now what it means to be a woman and in love.'" 230 "She knowed where he carried his gun." 290

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

I

HOW COME US TO MOVE

Bonnie Bell was her real name Bonnie Bell Wright. It sounds like a race horse or a yacht, but she was a girl. Like enough that name don't suit you exactly for a girl, but it suited her pa, Old Man Wright. I don't know as she ever was baptized by that name, or maybe baptized at all, for water was scarce in Wyoming; but it never would of been healthy to complain about that name before Old Man Wright or me, Curly. As far as that goes, she had other names too. Her ma called her Mary Isabel Wright; but her pa got to calling her Bonnie Bell some day when she was little, and it stuck, especial after her ma died.

That was when Bonnie Bell was only four years old, that her ma died, and her dying made a lot of difference on the ranch. I reckon Old Man Wright probably stole Bonnie Bell's ma somewhere back in the States when he was a young man. She must of loved him some or she wouldn't of came to Wyoming with him. She was tallish, and prettier than any picture in colors and game! She tried all her life to let on she liked the range, but she never was made for it.