did Feemy go soft?  Whats this game that upsets our game?  For seems to me theres two games bein played.  Our game is a rotten game that makes me feel I’m dirt and that youre all as rotten dirt as me.  T’other game may be a silly game; but it aint rotten.  When the Sheriff played it he stopped being rotten.  When Feemy played it the paint nearly dropped off her face.  When I played it I cursed myself for a fool; but I lost the rotten feel all the same.

Elder Daniels.  It was the Lord speaking to your soul, Blanco.

Blanco.  Oh yes:  you know all about the Lord, don’t you?  Youre in the Lord’s confidence.  He wouldn’t for the world do anything to shock you, would He, Boozy dear?  Yah!  What about the croup?  It was early days when He made the croup, I guess.  It was the best He could think of then; but when it turned out wrong on His hands He made you and me to fight the croup for him.  You bet He didn’t make us for nothing; and He wouldn’t have made us at all if He could have done His work without us.  By Gum, that must be what we’re for!  He’d never have made us to be rotten drunken blackguards like me, and good-for-nothing rips like Feemy.  He made me because He had a job for me.  He let me run loose til the job was ready; and then I had to come along and do it, hanging or no hanging.  And I tell you it didn’t feel rotten:  it felt bully, just bully.  Anyhow, I got the rotten feel off me for a minute of my life; and I’ll go through fire to get it off me again.  Look here! which of you will marry Feemy Evans?

The boys [uproariously] Who speaks first?  Who’ll marry Feemy?  Come along, Jack.  Nows your chance, Peter.  Pass along a husband for Feemy.  Oh my!  Feemy!

Feemy [shortly] Keep your tongue off me, will you?

Blanco.  Feemy was a rose of the broad path, wasn’t she?  You all thought her the champion bad woman of this district.  Well, she’s a failure as a bad woman; and I’m a failure as a bad man.  So let Brother Daniels marry us to keep all the rottenness in the family.  What do you say, Feemy?

Feemy.  Thank you; but when I marry I’ll marry a man that could do a decent action without surprising himself out of his senses.  Youre like a child with a new toy:  you and your bit of human kindness!

The woman.  How many would have done it with their life at stake?

Feemy.  Oh well, if youre so much taken with him, marry him yourself.  Youd be what people call a good wife to him, wouldn’t you?

The woman.  I was a good wife to the child’s father.  I don’t think any woman wants to be a good wife twice in her life.  I want somebody to be a good husband to me now.

Blanco.  Any offer, gentlemen, on that understanding? [The boys shake their heads].  Oh, it’s a rotten game, our game.  Here’s a real good woman; and she’s had enough of it, finding that it only led to being put upon.