[Illustration: "And holler! I wisht you could have heard that pig"] A sheep don't swim much better than a mowin' machine, and this feller got desperate--he was for the shore, no matter what broke. And Bill ripped the wool out of him for fair as he tried to scramble up. "Our fight, Steve!" says the Doctor. "I _knew_ he'd do him all the time! You throw up the sponge and we'll yank the critter out!" "Let him drown," says Steve. "I don't like him, hide nor hair--and, besides, think what he's cost me." But that wouldn't do. Hastings would have looked so mournful, happiness couldn't get along in the same territory with him. So out comes Mr. Ram. Done. Everlastingly done. All in and the cover screwed down. We pointed our fingers at him and did a war-dance around him, sayin': "Agh--hagh! You will, will you? Now, don't you wish you'd been good!" He hadn't a word to say. And that good old Billy, he comes up and rubs Wind River's legs out from under him just as natural as ever, not set up or swell-headed a bit, like the gentleman he was. [Illustration: "Done. Everlastingly done"] The ram eat his grass and minded his own business from that time on. For Sale, the Golden Queen This is the story of the great Golden Queen deal, as Hy Smith told it, after recovering his sanity: Aggy and me were snug up against it. One undeserved misfortune after another had come along and swatted us, till it looked as though we'd have to work for a living. But we plugged along at the Golden Queen, taking out about thirty cents a day--coarse, gold, fortunately--and at last we had 'bout an ounce and a half. Then says Aggy: "We could sell this mine, Hy, if we only put our profits in the right place." "Yes," says I. "This is a likely outfit around here to stick a gravel-bank on, ain't it? Good old Alder Gulch people, and folks from down Arizony way, and the like of that! Suppose you tried it on Uncle Peters, for instance--d'ye know what he'd say? Well, this 'ud be about the size of it: 'Unh, unh! Oh, man! Oh, dear me! That ain't no way to salt a mine, Ag! No, no! You'd oughter done this, and that--that's the way we used to do in Californy--nice weather, ain't it? No, thanks--I don't care to buy no placer mines--lots of country left yet for the taking up of it--it's a mighty good mine, I admit--you'd better keep it.' That's what he'd say." Ag combed his whiskers with his fingers. "I don't think we could close out to Uncle Peters," says he. "And if you tried some of the rest of 'em, they'd walk on your frame for insulting their intelligence. Perhaps you was thinking of inviting Pioche Bill Williams up to take a look at the ground?" "Well, no," says Aggy, slowly. "I don't think I'd care to irritate Bill--he's mighty careless with firearms."