"Then Jim goes surgin' off all spraddled out about the noomerous an'
manifest excellencies of this female, an' holds forth alarmin' of
an' concernin' her virchoos an' loveliness of face an' form, an' all
to sech a scand'lous degree, Bill has to step outdoors to blush.
"'An', Bill,' goes on Jim, an' he's plumb rapturous, that a-way,
'may I never hold three of a kind ag'in, if she ain't got a sister
who's as much like her as two poker chips. I'm co'tin' both of 'em
mighty near four years before ever I can make up my mind whichever
of 'em I needs. They're both so absolootely sim'lar for beauty, an'
both that aloorin' to the heart, I simply can't tell how to set my
stack down. At last, after four years, I ups an' cuts the kyards for
it, an' wins out this one.'
"'Well, Jim,' says Bill, who's been settin' thar shudderin' through
them rhapsodies, an' now an' then gettin' a glimpse of this yere
female with the tail of his eye: 'Well, Jim, far be it from me, an'
me your brother, to go avouchin' views to make you feel doobious of
your choice. But candor's got the drop on me an' compels me to speak
my thoughts. I never sees this sister of your wife, Jim, but jest
the same, I'd a heap sight rather have her.'
"An' as I observes previous," concluded the old gentleman, "I feels
about Japs an' Injuns like Bill does about Jim's wife that time. I
never sees no Japs, but I'd a mighty sight rather have 'em."
There was another pause after this, and cigars were produced. For a
time the smoke curled in silence. Then my friend again took up
discussion.
"Thar comes few Injuns investigatin' into Wolfville. Doorin' them
emutes of Cochise, an' Geronimo, an' Nana, the Apaches goes No'th
an' South clost in by that camp of ours, but you bet! they're never
that locoed as to rope once at Wolfville. We-all would shorely have
admired to entertain them hostiles; but as I su'gests, they're a
heap too enlightened to give us a chance.
"Savages never finds much encouragement to come ha'ntin' about
Wolfville. About the first visitin' Injun meets with a contreetemps;
though this is inadvertent a heap an' not designed. This buck, a
Navajo, I takes it, from his feathers, has been pirootin' about for
a day or two. At last I reckons he allows he'll eelope off into the
foothills ag'in. As carryin' out them roode plans which he forms, he
starts to scramble onto the Tucson stage jest as Old Monte's
c'llectin' up his reins. But it don't go; Injuns is barred. The
gyard, who's perched up in front next to Old Monte, pokes this yere
aborigine in the middle of his face with the muzzle of his rifle;
an' as the Injun goes tumblin', the stage starts, an' both wheels
passes over him the longest way. That Injun gives a groan like
twenty sinners, an his lamp is out.
"Old Monte sets the brake an' climbs down an' sizes up the
remainder. Then he gets back on the box, picks up his six hosses an'
is gettin' out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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