"'Whyever do you pull in your kyards that a-way?' I says to
Toothpick, reprovin' of him. 'Why can't you let 'em lay till the
hand's dealt?'

"'Which I'm shorely that locoed to look if I ain't got three aces or
some sech,' says Toothpick, 'I must turn 'em up to see.'

"'Well,' says I, an' the same is wisdom every time, 'you-all would
appear more like a dead cold sport to let 'em be, an' pick up your
whole hand together. Likewise, you'd display a mighty sight more
savey if you keeps your eyes on the dealer till he lays down the
deck. You'd be less afflicted by disagreeable surprises if you'd
freeze to the last idee; an' you'd lay up money besides.'

"But that's the notion I'm aimin' to convey; Toothpick is too quick.
His intellects, it looks like, is on eternal tip-toe to get in a
stack.

"'He's too simooltaneous, is Toothpick,' says Jack Moore once, when
him an' Boggs is discoursin' together, sizin' up Toothpick. 'He's
that simooltaneous he comes mighty near bein' a whole lot too
adjacent.'

"What does Toothpick do that time we-all disapproves an' stampedes
him? It's a accidental killin'.

"It's second drink time in the evenin', an' the Tucson stage is in.
Thar's a passel of us who has roped up our mail, an' now we're
standin' 'round in front of the Red Light, breakin' into letters an'