A Little Help for Hawkins

This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design. This lively Western comedy follows Slim Hawkins, a gloomy ranch hand whose perfume, love troubles, and bizarre inheritance set off a chain of frontier chaos. His aunt's will demands that he marry by the first of the month and somehow prove he can spend ten thousand dollars, prompting Muley Bowles, Telescope Tolliver, Chuck Warner, and Henry Peck to launch a barrage of jokes, schemes, and ill-advised "help." Their efforts drag in Ramona McGuire and her formidable father Oreana, whose proud, combative household makes courtship both desirable and dangerous. What begins as teasing and matchmaking quickly turns into saloon-side bargaining, fake financial agency, and comic manipulation of local businessmen and ranchers. As the scheme spirals, bills of sale, rumors, jealousy, and bad judgment spark brawls, a wrecked automobile ride, and mounting confusion over Slim's supposed obligations. In the end, the whole crisis is exposed as a misunderstanding: Slim had simply been distracted by a magazine story, not real-life romance or money troubles. The story closes with affectionate satire of cowboy bravado, gossip, loyalty, and the absurdity of life on the range.