.

"'Tis erbout pigs."

"I didn't know there were any pigs down in that country," said Ted, with
a sly smile.

"Oh, yes, there aire. Some folks calls them peccaries, an' others
alludes ter them ez wild hawgs. Yer pays yer money an' chooses what yer
likes best."

"Well, what about them?"

"'Tain't noways what ye'd call much o' a story, but it 'lustrates ther
intelligence o' ther hawg, which in my 'pinion ez almost ez great ez
thet o' some collidge gradooates what I hev mixed with."

Bud stopped and looked hard at Ben, who seemed to be taking a nap in his
big chair.

With a snort of disgust Bud turned his back on the big fellow and began:

"Me an' 'Peep-o'-day' Thompson wuz ridin' herd on a bunch o' cattle
belongin' ter ole man Bradish. All we hed ter do wuz ter keep 'em from
driftin' too fur, which nat'rally left us much time fer meditation an'
conversation.

"But it wa'n't long before I'd told all my stories, an' Peep bed plumb
fergot I'd tole them ter him, an' wuz tellin' them all over ter me,
claimin' they'd happened ter him.

"I stood it fer a spell because I didn't want ter make no friction
betwixt him an' me, but it made me sore jest ther same, because ther
derned lump allays got ther story balled up so's I hed trouble in
reconnizin' it sometimes. An' he inveribly got ther p'int o' ther story
hindside fore, which made me jest bile. But when yer on a long watch
with a feller, an' got ter see him from sunup ter moonrise, it's better
ter overlook a lot o' things.

"Well, 's I wuz sayin', we wuz on this stunt, an' had been out all o'
three month, takin' turns cookin' an' watchin' so's one o' us could git
erway from ther other fer a spell, an' go off an' sit down an' tell
hisself what a awful chump ther other wuz, an' how yer hated him.

"We hed a chuck wagon with us filled with flour, salt sowbelly an'
saleratus, with some coffee an' a few pounds o' fine terbaccer fer
makin' cigareets. I ain't sayin' nothin' erginst sowbelly ez ther
national food o' ther plains an' ther staff o' life in farmin'
communities, but ez a steady diet it begins ter pall when taken day in
an' day out with nothin' ter wash it down with but weak coffee made
outer alkali water.

"I reckon both me an' Peep wuz gittin' tired o' one another's cookin',
if ther truth wuz knowed, fer Peep could make ther wust biscuit I ever
et.

"My biscuit jest suited me ter a ty-ty, an' I reckon Peep felt ther same
way erbout hisn. Every time we s