where the whiskey bar'ls be, samplin' some Valley Tan that's jest
been freighted in. As she's new goods, that Valley Tan, an' as our
troo views touchin' its merits is important to the camp, we're
testin' the beverage plenty free an' copious. No expert gent can
give opinions worth a white chip concernin' nosepaint short o' six
drinks, an' we wasn't out to make no errors in our findin's about
that Valley Tan. So, as I relates, we're all mebby some five drinks
to the good, an' at last the talk, which has strayed over into the
high grass an' is gettin' a whole lot too learned an' profound for
most of the herd to cut in on, settles down between Doc Peets an
Colonel Sterett as bein' the only two sports able to protect their
play tharin.

"An' you can go as far as you like on it,' says the Colonel to
Peets, 'I'm plumb wise an' full concernin' the transmigration of
souls. I gives it my hearty beliefs. I can count a gent up the
moment I looks at him; also I knows exactly what he is before he's a
hooman bein'.'

"'That "transmigration" that a-way,' whispers Dan Boggs to Cherokee
Hall, 'ain't no fool of a word. I'll prance over an' pull it on Red
Dog to-morry. Which it's shore doo to strike'em dumb.'

"'Now yere's Hoppin' Harry,' goes on the Colonel p'intin' to a thin,
black little felon with long ha'r like a pony, who's strayed over
from Tucson; 'I gives it out cold, meanin' tharby no offence to our
Tucson friend--I gives it out cold that Hoppin' Harry used to be a
t'rant'ler. First,' continyoos the Colonel, stackin' Harry up mighty
scientific with his optic jest showin' over his glass, 'first I
allows he's a toad. Not a horned toad, which is a valyooed beast an'