"'Sech observations,' observes Tutt, to whom Boggs vouchsafes this
information, 'sech observations make me tired. They displays the
onlimited ability for ignorance of the hooman mind. Boggs, I don't
want to be deemed insultin', but you-all oughter go to night-school
some'ers ontil you learns the roodiments of the American language."
"When this yore colloquy ensooes, I'm away on the spring round-up,
an' tharfor not present tharat; but as good a jedge as Jack Moore,
insists that the remainder of the conversation would have come off
in the smoke if he hadn't, in his capacity of marshal, pulled his
six-shooter an' invoked Boggs an' Tutt to a ca'mer mood.
"But speakin' of this Huggins party, I never likes him. Aside from
his bein' mostly drunk, which, no matter what some may say or think,
I holds impairs a gent's valyoo as a social factor, Huggins is
avaricious an' dotes on money to the p'int of bein' sordid. He'd
gloat over a dollar like it was a charlotte roose, Huggins would.
So, as I says, I ain't fond of Huggins, an' takes no more pleasure
of his company than if he's a wet dog. Still, thar's sech a thing as
dooty; so, when Huggins comes wanderin' wild-eyed into the Red Light
about first drink time one evenin', an' confides to me in a whisper
that thar's a jack rabbit outside which has sworn to take his life,
an' is right then bushwhackin' about the door waitin' to execoote
the threat, I calls Doc Peets, an' aids in tyin' Huggins down so
that his visions can be met an' coped with medical.
"Peets rides herd on Huggins for about a week, an' at last effects
his rescoo from that hostile jack rabbit an' them crimson
rattlesnakes an' blue-winged bats that has j'ined dogs with it in
its attempts ag'in Huggins. Later, when Peets sends his charges,
this yere ingrate Huggins--lovin' money as I states--wants to squar'
it with a quart or two of whiskey checks on the Bird Cage bar.
Nacherally, Peets waves aside sech ignoble proffers as insults to
his professional standin'.
"'An' you all don't owe me a splinter, Huggins,' says Peets, as he
turns down the prop'sition to take whiskey checks as his reward.
'We'll jest call them services of mine in subdooin' your delirium
treemors a contreebution. It should shorely be remooneration enough
to know that I've preserved you to the Wolfville public, an' that
the camp can still boast the possession of the meanest sport an'
profoundest drunkard outside of the Texas Panhandle.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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