papers, an' a-makin' of comments, when along wanders a party who's
been picnicin' with the camp. As the deal turns, he never does stay
long nohow; never long enough to become a 'genial 'quaintance an' a
fav'rite of all.'

"This party who comes sidlin' up is, as we hears, late from Red Dog;
an' doorin' them four hours wherein he confers his society onto us,
he stays drunk habityooal an' never does lapse into bein' sober for
a second. It's shore remark'ble, now, how all them Red Dog people
stays intox'cated while they sojourns in Wolfville. Never knows it
to fail; an' I allows, as a s'lootion that a-way, it's owin' to the
sooperior merits of our nose-paint. It's a compliment they pays us.

"However, this Red Dog gent's drinkin' is his own affairs. An' his
earnestness about licker may have been his system; then ag'in it may
not; I don't go pryin' none to determine. But bein' he's plumb
drunk, as you readily discerns, it keeps up a barrier ag'in growin'
intimate with this party; an' ontil Toothpick opens on him, his
intercourse with Wolfville is nacherally only formal.

"This visitor from Red Dog--which Red Dog itse'f is about as low-
flung a bunch of crim'nals as ever gets rounded up an' called a
camp--but, as I'm sayin', this totterin' wreck I mentions comes
stragglin' up, more or less permiscus an' vague, an', without sayin'
a word or makin' a sign, or even shakin' a bush, stands about lariat
distance away an' star's at Toothpick, blinkin' his eyes mighty
malevolent.

"It ain't no time when this yere bluff on the part of the drinkin'
Red Dog gent attracts Toothpick, who's been skirmishin' 'round among