The Sunbonnet Incident

My friend Jeff would ride out occasionally and visit with the nesters. On one of these rides, he had met a young lady who had impressed him somewhat, and he wanted me to meet her. I consented, and we rode over. The house was a two room box affair with nothing between it and the horizon but a barbed-wire fence. By the time we got our horses tied, a bunch of youngens came flocking out of the door, and climbed all over Jeff. He struggled out at the door and with one hand hanging to each boot strap. There were several women in the house, some of them neighbors from eighty miles away. The girl we had come to call on had climbed onto the loft by way of a ladder to whiten her face. I was very bashful, and not much of a hand with the ladies, so I sat quietly by and let Jeff do the talking. The girl fuluetted in, and everything went nice enough, until a youngster slipped up behind me and swung an old fashioned sunbonnet over my face. Holding on to the string with all of his might and main, he fastened it tightly. I had to fight to extricate myself. This naturally put an end to our call. Jeff stamped out, frothing at the mouth and never called on the young lady again, nor does he like to be reminded of the incident.

From The Camp Life of a Cowpuncher by Carroll Doshier as told by Jim Christian