The Uphill Climb

By: Bower, B. M.

"Get your nose out of that book a minute and talk!" he commanded in a tone beseeching for all its surly growl. "You say I got married. I kinda recollect something of the kind. What I want to know is who's the lady? And what did I do it for?" He sat down, leaned his bruised head upon his palms, and spat morosely into the stove-hearth. "Lordy me," he grumbled. "I don't know any lady well enough to marry her-and I sure can't think of any female lady that would marry me-not even by proxy!"Sandy closed the book upon a forefinger and regarded Ford with that blend of pity, amusement, and tolerance which is so absolutely unbearable to one who has behaved foolishly and knows it. Ford would not have borne the look if he had seen it; but he was caressing a bruise on the point of his jaw and staring dejectedly into the meager blaze which rimmed the lower edge of the stove's front door, and so remained unconscious of his companion's impertinence."Who was the lady, Sandy?" he begged dispiritedly, after a silence."Search me" Sandy replied again succinctly. "Some stranger that blew in here with a license and the preacher and said you was her fee-ancy." (Sandy read romances, mostly, and permitted his vocabulary to profit thereby.) "You never denied it, even when she said your name was a nomdy gair; and you let her marry you, all right.""Are you sure of that?" Ford looked up from under lowering eyebrows."Unh-hunh-that's what you done, all right." Sandy's voice was dishearteningly positive."Lordy me!" gasped Ford under his breath.There was a silence which slid Sandy's interest back into his book. He turned a leaf and was half-way down the page before he was interrupted by more questions."Say! Where's she at now?" Ford spoke with a certain furtive lowering of his voice.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09223PGMP
• ISBN13: 9798732900422
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 126 Pages
• Weight: 0.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.0" x 8.0"