profitin' by this play. Barkeep, set up all your bottles an' c'llect
from Butch.'

"But to go back to my long ago camp on the Caliente. Prince Hal is a
polished an' p'lite sort o' anamile. The second day after I pitches
camp, Prince Hal shows up. He paws the grass, an' declar's himse'f,
an' gives notice that while I'm plumb welcome, he wants it
onderstood that he's party of the first part in that valley, an'
aims to so continyoo. As I at once agrees to his claims, he is
pacified; then he counts up the camp like he's sizin' up the
plunder. It's at this point I signs Prince Hal as my friend for life
by givin' him about a foot of bacon-skin. He stands an' chews on
that bacon-skin for two hours; an' thar's heaven in his looks. "It
gets so Prince Hal puts in all his spar' time at my camp. An' I
donates flapjacks, bacon-skins an' food comforts yeretofore onknown
to Prince Hal. He regyards that camp of mine as openin' a new era on
the Caliente.

"When not otherwise engaged, Prince Hal stands in to curry my ponies
with his tongue. The one he'd be workin' on would plant himse'f
rigid, with y'ears drooped, eyes shet, an' tail a-quiverin'; an'
you-all could see that Prince Hal, with his rough tongue, is jest
burnin' up that bronco from foretop to fetlocks with the joy of them
attentions. When Prince Hal has been speshul friendly, I'd pass him
out a plug of Climax tobacco. Sick? Never once! It merely elevates
Prince Hal's sperits in a mellow way, that tobacco does; makes him
feel vivid an' gala a whole lot.

"Which we're all gettin' on as pleasant an' oneventful as a litter
of pups over on the Caliente, when one mornin' across the divide