jist about swap ye outen your eye-teeth, if
you'd listen to him.

Yas, Jim wuz some punkins on a swap;
Jim 'd swap anything he had fer anything
he didn't want, jist to be swappin'.

Wall, a gypsy cum along one day and
tackled Jim fer a swap; and about that time
Jim he'd got hold of a critter that had more
cussedness in him to the squar inch than any
critter we'd ever sot eyes on, 'cept a cirkus
mule that Ezra Hoskins owned.

Wall, the gypsy traded Jim a mighty fine
lookin' critter, and we all calculated that
Jim had right smart of a bargain, 'til one day
Jim went to ride him, 'n he found out if he
fetched the peskey critter on the sides he'd
squat right down. Wall, Jim knowed if he
didn't git rid of that hoss, his reputation as a
hoss trader wuz forever gone; so he went
over in t'other township to see old Deacon
Witherspoon. You see the Deacon he wuz
mighty fond of goin' a-huntin', and as he
had rheumatiz purty bad it wuz sort of hard
fer him to git 'round, so he had to do his
huntin' on hoss back. Wall, Jim didn't say
much to fuss, just kinder hinted around that
huntin' was a-goin' to be mighty good this