While the roosters crow and the birdies sing.
All join hands and circle wide,
Spread right out like an old cow hide.
All jump up and never come down,
Swing your pretty girl round and round.”
The only ones who were not having a good time at the dance were the ballplayers of the St. Louis Unions. When they saw that the girls were more interested in the young men of Smoke’s baseball team, they began to get angry and they started taunting Smoke’s men.
“Perhaps we should have lost the game. Then the girls would have taken pity on us, as they have these poor rubes,” one of the players suggested.
“I think we should have played the girls,” another player said. “They would have given us a better game.”
One insult led into another, until finally one of the Unions reached out and tripped Jules as he was dancing. When Jules fell, all the Unions laughed loudly.
“What’s the matter, boy? Are you so clumsy that you can’t even keep your feet?” one of the players called out.
“You tripped me!” Jules shouted, jumping up and confronting the one who had done it.
The St. Louis player pushed Jules back, and another St. Louis player tripped him again.
“My word, they are as clumsy on the dance floor as they are on the baseball diamond.”
This time when Jules jumped up, he came up swinging, connecting with a right jab to the chin of the one who was tormenting him. The player went down, but another player attacked Jules.
Within seconds, the rest of Smoke’s men joined in the action and the entire dance came to a halt as the young men from both camps traded blows. The fight continued in a grand scale with tables and chairs turning over, punch bowls being spilled, and men and women shouting, some in alarm and some in encouragement.
The fight lasted for several minutes until, eventually, Smoke, Sheriff Carson, and two of his deputies managed to break it up. As the fight finally came to an end, it became obvious that Smoke’s men had gotten much the better of the St. Louis Unions, all of whom were now nursing black eyes and bloody noses.
As the cowboys rode back out to Sugarloaf that night, they were laughing and singing.
“Well, they may have beaten us at baseball, but we sure gave ’em a licking where it counts,” Cal said.
“We sure did,” LeRoy said.
“You won on the baseball diamond as well,” Smoke said.
“No, we lost, four to three,” Jules said.
“Uh-huh,” Smoke said. “Only their manager bet me two hundred dollars that they would win by at least five runs.”
“They only beat us by one run,” Jules said.
“That’s right,” Smoke said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. “And that’s why we won two hundred dollars. You fellas can divide it up exactly as you would have had we won the game.”
“Then I can leave my mom twenty dollars before we leave,” Jules said excitedly.
“Forty dollars,” Pearlie said. “You can have my share.”
“Sixty,” Cal offered.
“I’d give you my money too, Jules, only I ain’t had no work in near two months now,” Billy said.
“Me neither,” LeRoy echoed.
“I thank you, but Ma don’t need no more money than this,” Jules said. “This’ll keep her till we get back.” He looked at Pearlie and Cal. “Thanks to you two,” he added.
“Ah,” Pearlie said. “It wasn’t nothin’.”
“You didn’t really make a bet with that baseball team, did you?” Sally asked that night as she lay in bed beside Smoke.
“What makes you think I didn’t?”
“Because I was with you all day, remember? You couldn’t have made such a bet without me knowing about it.”
“Well, suppose I didn’t.”
Sally laughed. “Nothing, except you are a wonderfully generous man, Kirby Jensen.”
“So are Pearlie and Cal. They gave their money to Jules.”
“I know. You have been a wonderful influence on them.”
“Ha!” Smoke said. “We all know who has been the real influence on them. No tellin’ where those two would be now if it weren’t for you.”
Sally snuggled up against Smoke. “Let’s face it,” she said. “You and I make a wonderful team. That’s why I know we are going to get there first.”
Smoke lay quietly for just a second. Then he raised himself up on one elbow and looked down at Sally.
“What did you say?”
