sideways at you, full of rage an' venom, is bound to be reminded
partic'lar of Hoppin' Harry.'

"'What did you-all use to be yourse'f, Colonel?' asks Enright, who
notices that Hoppin' Harry is beginnin' to bristle some, like he
ain't pleased none with these yere revelations. 'What for a anamile
was you before you're a hooman?'

"'I was a good-nachered hoss,' says the Colonel mighty confident an'
prompt; 'I'm a good-nachered hoss in a country neighborhood, an'
everybody rides me that wants to. However, I allows we better shift
the subject some. If we-all talks about these yere insects an'
reptiles a little longer, Huggins over thar--whose one weakness is
he's too frank with an' puts too much confidence in his licker--will
have another one of them attacks of second sight, which Peets cures
him of that time, an' commence seein' a multitood of heinous
visions.'

"'Of course,' says Enright, plumb p'lite, 'of course, Colonel, I can
tell a whole lot about your fam'ly by jest lookin' at you;
partic'lar where as at present you're about ten drinks ahead; still
thar's nothin' gives me more pleasure than hearin' about the sire
from the colt; an' if you won't receive it resentful, I'd ask you as
to your folks back in Kaintuck.'

"'As you-all knows,' observes Colonel Sterett, 'I was foaled in
Kaintucky; an' I must add, I never recalls that jestly cel'brated
commonwealth with-out a sigh. Its glories, sech as they was before
the war, is fast departin' away. In my yooth, thar is nothin' but a
nobility in Kaintucky; leastwise in the Bloo Grass country, whereof