"'Now stand your hand a second,' says Enright, 'don't let's overlook no bets.Whatever has you Red Dog hold-ups got to eat, anyhow?'
"'Ain't got nothin' to eat much--maybe some can stuff--what you-alls calls air-tights,' says the Red Dog man.'But we has liquid, no limit.'
"'Got any can tomatters?' says Boggs.
"'Can tomatters we-alls is 'speshul strong on,' says the Red Dog man.'It's where we-alls lives at; can tomatters is.'
"'I tells you what you-all do,' says Enright, 'an' when I speaks, Irepresents for this yere camp.'
"'Which he shore does,' says Jack.'He's the Big Gray Wolf yere, you can gamble.If he don't say "go slow" when you comes a-yellin' up, your remains would a-been coverin' half an acre right now.It would look like it's beef-day at this yere agency, shore.'
"'You-all go back to Red Dog,' says Enright, payin' no notice to Jack's interruptions, 'an' tell 'em we plants the war-axe for one day, an' to come over an' smoke ponies with us, instead of we-alls come thar.We're goin' to have baked beans an' salt hoss, an' we looks for Red Dog in a body.Next Thanksgivin' we eats in Red Dog.
Does this yere go?'
"`It goes,' says the Red Dog gent; 'but be you-alls shore thar's s'fficient whiskey in your camp? Red Dog folks is a dry an' burnin'
outfit an' is due to need a heap.'
"'The liquid's all right,' says Boggs.'If you alls wants to do yourse'f proud, freight in a hundred-weight of them can tomatters.
Which we runs out entire.'
The next day Missis Rucker sets tables all over her dinin'-room an'
brings on her beans.Eighteen Red Dog gents is thar, each totin' of a can of tomatters.An' let me impart right yere, son, we never has a more free an' peacefuller day than said Thanksgivin'.
"'Them beans is a little hard, ain't they?' says Doc Peets, while we-alls is eatin', bein' p'lite an' elegant like.'Mebby they don't get b'iled s'fficient?'
"'Them beans is all right,' says the War Chief of the Red Dogs.
'They be some hard, but you can't he'p it none.It's the altitood;the higher up you gets, the lower heat it takes to b'ile water.So it don't mush up beans like it should.'
"'That's c'rrect every time,' says Enright; 'I mind bein' over back of Prescott once, an' up near timber-line, an' I can't b'ile no beans at all.I'm up that high the water is so cold when it b'iles that ice forms on it some.I b'iles an' b'iles on some beans four days, an' it don't have no more effect than throwin' water on a drowned rat.After persistent b'ilin', I skims out a hand.ful an'
drops 'em onto a tin plate to test 'em, an' it sounds like buckshot.
As you says, it's the altitood.'
"'Gents,' says the boss of Red Dog, all of a sudden, an' standin' up by Enright, 'I offers the toast: "Wolfville an' Red Dog, now an'
yereafter."'
"Of course we-alls drinks, an' Doc Peets makes a talk.He speaks mighty high of every gent present; which compliments gets big action in sech a game.The Red Dog chief--an' he's a mighty civilized-lookin' gent--he talks back, an' calls Wolfville an' Red Dog great commercial centers, which they sore be.He says, 'We-alls is friendly to-day, an' fights the rest of the year,' which we-alls agrees to cordial.He says fightin'.or, as he calls it, 'a generous rivalry,' does camps good, an' I reckons he's right, too, 'cause it shore results in the cashin' in of some mighty bad an' disturbin'
elements.When he sets down, thar's thunders of applause.
"It's by this time that the drinkin' becomes frequent an' common.
The talk gets general, an' the lies them people evolves an' saws off on each other would stampede stock.
"Any day but Thanksgivin' sech tales would shore lead to reecriminations an' blood; but as it is, every gent seems relaxed an' onbuckled that a-way in honor of the hour, an' it looks like lyin' is expected.
"How mendacious be them people? If I recalls them scenes c'rrectly, it's Texas Thompson begins the campaign ag'in trooth.
"This yere Texas Thompson tells, all careless-like, how 'way back in the forties, when he's a boy, he puts in a Thanksgivin' in the Great Salt Lake valley with Old Jim Bridger.This is before the Mormons opens their little game thar.
"'An' the snow falls to that extent, mebby it's six foot deep,' says Texas.'Bridger an' me makes snow-shoes an' goes slidin' an'
pesterin' 'round all fine enough.But the pore animals in the valley gets a rough time.
"'It's a fact; Bridger an' me finds a drove of buffalos bogged down in the snow,--I reckons now thar's twenty thousand of 'em,--and never a buffalo can move a wheel or turn a kyard.Thar they be planted in the snow, an' only can jest wag their y'ears an' bat their eyes.
"'Well, to cut it brief, Bridger an' me goes projectin' 'round an'
cuts the throats of them twenty-thousand buffalo; which we-alls is out for them robes a whole lot.Of course we don't skin 'em none while they's stuck in the snow; but when the snow melts in the spring, we capers forth an' peels off the hides like shuckin' peas.
They's froze stiff at the time, for the sun ain't got 'round to thaw the beef none yet; an' so the meat's as good as the day we downs 'em.
"'An' that brings us to the cur'ous part.As fast as we-alls peels a buffalo, we rolls his carcass down hill into Salt Lake, an' what do you-alls reckons takes place? The water's that briny, it pickles said buffalo-meat plumb through, an' every year after, when Bridger an' me is back thar--we're trappin' an' huntin' them times,--all we has to do is haul one of them twenty thousand pickled buffalos ashore an' eat him.
"'When the Mormons comes wanderin' along, bein' short on grub that a-way, they nacherally jumps in an' consooms up the whole outfit in one season, which is why you-alls don't find pickled buffalo in Salt Lake no more.
"'Bridger an' me starts in, when we learns about it, to fuss with them polygamists that a-way for gettin' away with our salt buffalos.
But they's too noomerous for us, an' we done quits 'em at last an'
lets it go.'
"Nobody says much when Texas Thompson is through.We merely sets 'round an' drinks.But I sees the Red Dog folks feels mortified.
