We was so took by Eugene’s eloquence that we hardly noticed him slip the apron from in front of his cage; but when we did look, we could hardly get our breath. I was standin’ close to the Friar; and at first he looked puzzled, and then his face lit up with a regular boy’s grin; but he didn’t say a word. Columbus was certainly a giant; he stood full two feet tall as he sat up an’ scrutinized around with a bossy sort of grin. He was dappled fawn color on the sides with a curly black streak down the back an’ sort o’ chestnut-red below, with a short tail an’ teeth like chisels. He won so blame easy that even us what had bet on him didn’t cheer. Ol’ man Dort give a grin, thinkin’ Ben Butler must have won, an’ then he stepped around an’ looked into Eugene’s cage. He looked first at Columbus, an’ then at Ben Butler, then he looked again. “That damned thing ain’t alive,” he sez. “It’s made up out o’ wool yarn. Poke it up an’ let me see it move.” “Poke it yourself,” sez Eugene. He was one o’ these cold-blooded gamblers who ain’t got one speck o’ decent sentimentality; an’ he was mad ’cause we hadn’t cheered. Ol’ man Dort took a stick an’ poked Columbus, an’ Columbus give a threatenin’ grin, chattered savage, an’ bit the stick in two. “Give him the money, Ike,” sez ol’ man Dort. “I own up I never was in Nova Scotia, an’ I never supposed that such squirrels as this grew on the face o’ the whole earth. What’ll you take for him?” he sez to Eugene. “It ain’t your fault that you didn’t know about him,” sez Eugene, thawin’ a little humanity into himself. “I don’t want to rub it in on nobody; and I’ll give you this here squirrel free gratis, ’cause I admit that you know more about squirrels ’n anybody else what ever I met; an’ you have the biggest red squirrel the’ is in the world.” Then we did give Eugene a cheer, an’ everything loosened up, an’ we all crowded into Ike Spargle’s so that them what won could spend a little money on them what lost. After a time, ol’ man Dort got up on a chair, an’ sez: “I want you fellers to know that Columbus won’t never be my pet. Ben Butler has been the squarest squirrel ever was, an’ he continues to remain my pet; but I’ll study feedin’ this condemned foreign squirrel, an’ give him a fair show; so that if any outsiders come around makin’ brags, we will have a home squirrel to enter again’ ’em an’ get their money.” Eugene led the cheerin’ this time, which made Eugene solider than ever with the boys, an’ when Spider an’ me got ready to ride home, he an’ ol’ man Dort had their arms around each other tryin’ to sing the Star Spangled Banner. Spider talked about Columbus most o’ the way home, but I was still. The’ was somethin’ peculiar about the Friar’s grin when he first sighted Columbus, and the’ was somethin’ familiar about that squirrel, an’ I was tryin’ to adjust myself. Just as we swung to the west on the last turn, I sez to Spider: “Spider, I don’t know what I ought to do about this?” “About what?” sez Spider.