"_Bob Smith_ says, does he? And who's _Bob Smith_? Much does _Bob Smith_ know about Augusty! He's _been thar_, I reckon! Slipped off yerly some mornin', when nobody warn't noticin', and got back afore night! It's _only_ a hundred and fifty mile. Oh, yes, _Bob Smith_ knows _all_ about it! _I_ don't know nothin' about it! _I_ ain't never been to Augusty--_I_ couldn't find the road thar, I reckon--ha, ha! _Bob_--_Sm-ith_! If he was only to see one of them fine gentlemen in Augusty, with his fine broadcloth, and bell-crown hat, and shoe-boots a-shinin' like silver, he'd take to the woods and kill himself a-runnin'. Bob Smith! That's whar all your devilment comes from, Simon." "Bob Smith's as good as anybody else, I judge; and a heap smarter than some. He showed me how to cut Jack," continued Simon, "and that's more nor some people can do, if they _have_ been to Augusty." "If Bob Smith kin do it," said the old man, "I kin, too. I don't know it by that name; but if it's book knowledge or plain sense, and Bob kin do it, it's reasonable to s'pose that old Jed'diah Suggs won't be bothered _bad_. Is it any ways similyar to the rule of three, Simon?" "Pretty similyar, daddy, but not adzactly," said Simon, drawing a pack from his pocket to explain. "Now, daddy," he proceeded, "you see these here four cards is what we call the Jacks. Well, now, the idee is, if you'll take the pack and mix 'em all up together, I'll take off a passel from the top, and the bottom one of them I take off will be one of the Jacks." "Me to mix 'em fust?" said old Jed'diah. "Yes." "And you not to see but the back of the top one, when you go to 'cut,' as you call it?" "Jist so, daddy." "And the backs all jist' as like as kin be?" said the senior Suggs, examining the cards. "More alike nor cow-peas," said Simon. "It can't be done, Simon," observed the old man, with great solemnity. "Bob Smith kin do it, and so kin I." "It's agin nater, Simon; thar ain't a man in Augusty, nor on top of the yearth, that kin do it!" "Daddy," said our hero, "ef you'll bet me--" "What!" thundered old Mr. Suggs. "_Bet_, did you says?" and he came down with a _scorer_ across Simon's shoulders. "Me, Jed-diah Suggs, that's been in the Lord's sarvice these twenty years,--_me_ bet, you nasty, sassy, triflin', ugly--" "I didn't go to say _that_, daddy; that warn't what I meant adzactly. I went to say that ef you'd let me off from this her maulin' you owe me, and _give me_ 'Bunch,' if I cut Jack, I'd _give you_ all this here silver, ef I didn't,--that's all. To be sure, I allers knowed _you_ wouldn't _bet_."