'
" `I'll wait for the decree if it won't take over half an hour,'
says Luke.
" `Tut, tut,' says the lawyer man. `Law must take its course.
Come back day after to-morrow at half-past nine.'
"At that time me and Luke shows up, and the lawyer hands him a
folded document. And Luke writes him out a check.
"On the sidewalk Luke holds up the paper to me and puts a finger
the size of a kitchen-door latch on it and says:
" `Decree of ab-so-lute divorce with cus-to-dy of the child.'
" `Skipping over much what has happened of which I know nothing,'
says I, `it looks to me like a split. Couldn't the lawyer man
have made it a strike for you?'
" `Bud,' says he, in a pained style, `that child is the one thing
I have to live for. SHE may go; but the boy is mine!--think of
it--I have cus-to-dy of the child.'
" `All right,' says I. `If it's the law, let's abide by it. But I
think,' says I, `that Judge Simmons might have used exemplary
clemency, or whatever is the legal term, in our case.'
"You see, I wasn't inveigled much into the desirableness of
having infants around a ranch, except the kind that feed
themselves and sell for so much on the hoof when they grow up.
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