The Man from Bar 20: A Story of the Cow CountryMulford, Clarence Edward
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The Man from Bar 20: A Story of the Cow Country
Mulford, Clarence Edward
Cassidy, Hopalong (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Western stories
"We knows what's rumored around about Twin Buttes; an' we knows who
lives up there; an' we knows there ain't never been no farm products
come out of that section. That's th' biggest mistake you fellers ever
made; you should 'a' run a garden. Likewise, we knows that tin-horns
don't gamble with things that belong to other people, if th' other
people packs guns. An' 'specially they don't gamble with no cows an'
hosses. 'Tain't popular, an' folks don't like it. A tin-horn ain't man
enough to risk a bullet or a rope. Now then, you just let me draw you
th' picture of a dream I've often had.
"I can see a bunch of husky cow-punchers, among which I see myself, an'
we're punchin' cows that we never bought. We're poolin' our winnin's
an' sharin' th' risks. I can even see me rustlin' cows, an' there's
men with me that I could name if my memory wasn't so bad. There's a
big rock wall, an' a deep, swift river that's so d--d cold it fair
hurts. An' somewhere back in th' buttes, which is in a section plumb
fatal to strangers, all but one, is a little ranch, with a drive trail
leadin' north or west. That's th' dream. Ain't it h--l what fool ideas
go trompin' an' rampagin' through a man's mind when he's asleep,
'specially if he ain't satisfied to work for wages? Did you ever have
any?"
Ackerman grinned to hide his surprise. "Yo're a grand dreamer, Pete.
I've had dreams somethin' like that, myself; an' so far's I'm concerned
yourn can come true; but I only got one vote. An' as I ain't goin' back
for some time, I don't know just what to say."
"Not knowin' what to say never bothered me," chuckled Long Pete. "I can
talk th' spots off a poker deck; I'll show you how, some day. But as
long as you mentioned dreams, it reminds me of another I've had. Not
long ago, neither. I saw a two-gun prospector leavin' an unpleasant
location. He was a _reg'lar_ two-gun man; a wise feller could just see
it a-stickin' out all over him. I kept right on bein' hungry. Then,
quite a little later I saw another man, a cow-puncher, ridin' along his
trail; an' he had so much grub it fair dazzled me. An' bein' friendly,
in my dream, I up an' tells th' second man where th' other feller was
headin'. An' if th' dream hadn't 'a' stopped there I could 'a' told
him which way th' two-gun prospector an' his black, Tin Cup cayuse
went on th' mornin' follerin' th' day I saw him. Funny how things like
that will stick in a man's memory. An' I've heard tell that lots of
people believes in dreams, too. Seems like you only got to know how
to figger 'em to learn a lot of useful an' plumb interestin' things.
A fortune-teller told me that. Why, once I dreamed that I had shot a
feller that had been pesterin' me; an' when I got sober, d--d if I
hadn't, too!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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