Release date is 2026-05-13

Prepared by volunteers at BookCove (bookcove.net)

Honest to Doughgod by W. C. Tuttle is a humorous Western short story written in the early 20th century. It centers on three amiable cowpunchers whose bungled courtship of a new schoolteacher collides with an attempted debt repayment, turning pride, friendship, and frontier manners into lively farce.

Hen Peck narrates the misadventures of his trio—himself, the rotund poet Muley Bowles, and the swaggering singer “Telescope” Tolliver—after they meet Miss Adamson, Paradise’s new teacher. They agree to court her on separate nights, but Hen arrives drunk and never calls, Muley suffers a mortifying corral mishap beneath a saddle blanket, and Telescope spends money he doesn’t have. Meanwhile, hot-tempered “Doughgod” Smith twice tries to repay Muley forty dollars, only to be doused with liniment once and have his cash shot to pieces the next time, sending Muley into hiding under the bunkhouse, sure he’s a killer. The sheriff finally appears—with Doughgod alive and eager to pay up and announce his marriage to Miss Adamson. Muley bursts from concealment, gifts Doughgod the forty as a wedding present, and the three friends sheepishly admit none of them actually courted the teacher—punctuating the tale’s punchline of loyalty, bluster, and mistaken assumptions. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Originally published: New York, NY: The Ridgway Company, 1917