they're onjust in them demands for back pay--sort o' overplays their
hands, They've decided, Colonel, that you're dead right; an' I'm
yere now to say we're sorry, an' we'll all go back an' open up an'
get the Coyote out ag'in in old-time form.'

"'Have a drink, Jim,' says the Colonel, an' his face has a cloud of
regrets onto it; 'take four fingers of this red-eye an' cheer up.
You-all assoomes too sombre a view of this contention.'

"'I'm obleeged to you, Colonel,' replies the head-printer; 'but I
don't much care to drink none before the boys. They ain't got no
bank-roll an' no credit like you has, Colonel--that's what makes
them see their errors--an' the plain trooth is they ain't had
nothin' to drink for twenty-four hours. That's why I don't take
nothin'. It would shore seem invidious for me to be settin' yere
h'istin' in my nose-paint, an' my pore comrades lookin' he'plessly
on; that's whatever! I'm too much a friend of labor to do it,
Colonel.'

"'What!' says Boggs, quite wrought up; 'do you-all mean to tell me
them onhappy sports ain't had a drink since yesterday? It's a stain
on the camp! Whoopee, barkeep! see what them gents will have; an'
keep seein' what they'll have endoorin' this conference.'

"'Jim,' says the Colonel, mighty reluctant, 'ain't you-all
abandonin' your p'sition prematoor? Thar's somethin' doo to a
principle, Jim. I'd rather looked for a continyooation of this
estrangement for a while at least. I'd shore take time to consider
it before ever I'd let this strike c'llapse.'