"Exactly as I surmises, when I turns out at sun-up thar's never a mule in
sight. Every one of them idolaters goes poundin' back, as fast as ever
he can with hobbles on, to confess his sins an' say his pray'rs at the
shrine of that old gray mare. Even Jerry, whose cynicism should have
saved him, pulls his picket-pin with the rest an', takin' Tom along, goes
curvin' off. It ain't more than ten minutes, you can gamble! when James
an' me is on their trails.

"One by one, I overtakes the team strung all along between my camp an'
Tramperos. Peter, the little lead mule, bein' plumb agile an' a sharp on
hobbles, gets cl'ar thar; an' I finds him devourin' the goddess gray mare
with heart an' soul an' eyes, an' singin' to himse'f the while in low,
satisfied tones.

"As one after the other I passes the pilgrim mules I turns an' lifts
about a squar' inch of hide off each with the blacksnake whip I'm
carryin', by way of p'intin' out their heresies an arousin' in 'em a
eagerness to get back to their waggons an' a' upright, pure career. They
takes the chastisement humble an' dootiful, an' relinquishes the thought
of reachin' the goddess gray mare.

"When I overtakes old Jerry I pours the leather into him speshul, an' the
way him an' his pard Tom goes scatterin' for camp refreshes me a heap.
An' yet after I rescoos Peter from the demoralisin' inflooences of the
gray mare, an' begins to pick up the other members of the team on the
journey back, I'm some deepressed when I don't see Tom or Jerry. Nor is
either of them mules by the waggons when I arrives.

"It's onadulterated cussedness! Jerry, with no hobbles an' merely