bein' garnered in. I hopes he'll get along thar, an' offers a side
bet, even money, up to five hundred dollars, he will. He may alter
his system an' stand way up with the angels an' seraphs, an' if
words from me could fix it, I'd shorely stack 'em in. I would say
further that after consultin' with Billy Burns, who keeps the Red
Light, we has, in honor of the dead an' to mark the occasion of his
cashin' in, agreed upon a business departure of interest to all.
This departure Mister Burns will state. I mournfully gives way to
him for said purpose.'

"'Mister Peets, an' ladies an' gents,' says Burns, 'like Mister
Hamilton, who I'm proud to meet yere as gent, citizen, an' friend, I
knows deceased. He's a good man, an' a dead-game sport from 'way
back. A protracted wrastle with the remorseless drinks of the
frontier had begun to tell on him, an' for a year or so he's been
liable to have spells. Referrin' to the remarks of Mister Hamilton,
I states that by agreement between us an' in honor to departed, the
quotations on whiskey in this yere camp, from now on, will be two
drinks for two bits, instead of one as previous. We don't want to
onsettle trade, an' we don't believe this will. We makes it as a ray
of light in the darkness an' gloom of the hour.

"After this yere utterance, which is well received, we forms the
procession. Doc Peets, with two buglers from the Fort, takes the
lead, with Jack an' his box in one of the stage coaches comin' next.
Enright, Tutt, Boggs, Short Creek Dave, Texas Thompson, an' me,
bein' the six pallbearers, is on hosses next in line; an' Jack Moore
commandin' of the rest of the outfit, lines out permiscus.

"'This is a great day for Wolfville," says Peets, as he rides up an'