"That night Falstaff, with the pore Pistol jest able to totter,
stays with us, an' Prince Hal fusses an' bosses' 'round, sort o'
directin' their entertainment. The next afternoon Falstaff gives a
deep bellow or two, like he's extendin' 'adios' to the entire
Caliente canyon, an' then goes pirootin' off for home in Long's,
with Pistol, who looks an' feels like a laughin' stock, limpin' at
his heels. That's the end. Four days later, as I'm swingin' 'round
the range, I finds Falstaff an' Pistol in Long's Canyon; Prince Hal
is on the Caliente; while Hotspur--an' his air is both wise an' sad-
-is tamely where he belongs on the Upper Red. An' now recallin' how
I comes to plunge into this yere idyl, I desires to ask you-all,
however Prince Hal brings Faistaff to the wars that time, if cattle
can't talk?"
CHAPTER XII.
How Wolfville Made a Jest.
"It's soon after that time I tells you of when Rainbow Sam dies
off," and the Old Cattleman assumed the airs of a conversational
Froude, "when the camp turns in an' has its little jest with the
Signal Service sharp. You sees we're that depressed about Rainbow
cashin' in, we needc reelaxatin that a-way, so we-all nacheral
enough diverts ourse'fs with this Signal party who comes bulgin' up
all handy.
"Don't make no mistaken notions about Wolfville bein' a idle an' a
dangerous camp. Which on the contrary, Wolfville is shorely the home
of jestice, an' a squar' man gets a squar' game every time. Thar
ain't no 'bad men' 'round Wolfville, public sentiment bein' obdurate
on that p'int. Hard people, who has filed the sights offen their
six-shooters or fans their guns in a fight, don't get tolerated,
none whatever.
"Of course, thar's gents in Wolfville who has seen trouble an' seen
it in the smoke. Cherokee Hall, for instance, so Doc Peets mentions
to me private, one time an' another downs 'leven men.
"But Cherokee's by nacher kind o' warm an' nervous, an' bein' he's
behind a faro game, most likely he sees more o'casion; at any rate,
it's common knowledge that whatever he's done is right.
"He don't beef them 'leven in Wolfville; all I recalls with us, is
the man from Red Dog, the Stingin' Lizard, an' mebby a strayed
Mexican or so. But each time Cherokee's hand is forced by these yere
parties, an' he's exculpated in every gent's mind who is made awar'
tharof.
"No; Cherokee don't rely allers on his gun neither. He's a hurryin'
knife fighter for a gent with whom knives ain't nacher. Either way,
however, gun or knife, Cherokee is a heap reliable; an' you can put
down a bet that what he misses in the quadrille he'll shore make up
in the waltz with all who asks him to a war dance. But speakin' of
knives: Cherokee comes as quick an' straight with a bowie as a
rattlesnake; an' not half the buzz about it.
"But jest the same, while thar's gents in camp like Cherokee, who
has been ag'inst it more'n once, an' who wins an' gets away, still
Wolfviile's its quiet an' sincere an outfit as any christian could
ask.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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