' stoopin'
at him, beak an' claw like forty hawks, that your remarks is doo to
come to his aid an' uplift his sperits some. An' as you says a moment
back, thar's bound in the long run to be a equilibr'um. The lower your
bad luck, the taller your good luck when it strikes camp. It's the
same with the old Rockies, an' wherever you goes it's ever a
never-failin' case of the deeper the valley, the higher the hill!

"'As is frequent with me,' says Dan Boggs, after we sets quiet a
moment, meanwhiles tastin' our nosepaint thoughtful--for these
outbursts of Cherokee's an' Enright's calls for consid'rations,--'as is
frequent with me,' says Dan, 'I reckons I'll string my chips with
Cherokee. The more ready since throughout my own checkered c'reer--an'
I've done most everything 'cept sing in the choir,--luck has ever
happened bunched like he asserts. Which I gets notice of these
pecooliarities of fortune early. While I'm simply doin' nothin' to
provoke it, a gust of bad luck prounces on me an' thwarts me in a noble
ambition, rooins my social standin' an busts two of my nigh ribs all in
one week.

"'I'm a colt at the time, an' jest about big enough to break. My folks
is livin' in Missouri over back of the Sni-a-bar Hills. By nacher I'm
a heap moosical; so I ups--givin' that genius for harmony
expression--an' yoonites myse'f with the "Sni-a-bar Silver Cornet
Band." Old Hickey is leader, an' he puts me in to play the snare drum,
the same bein' the second rung on the ladder of moosical fame, an' one
rung above the big drum. Old Hickey su'gests that I start with the
snare drum an' work up. Gents, you-all should have heard me with that
instrooment! I'd shore light into her like a storm of hail!

"'For a spell the "Sni-a-bar Silver Cornet Band" used to play in the
woods. This yere Sni-a-bar commoonity is a mighty nervous
neighbourhood, an' thar's folks whose word is above reproach who sends
us notice they'll shoot us up if we don't; so at first we practises in
the woods. But as time goes on we improves an' plays well enough so we
don't scare children; an' then the Sni-a-bar people consents to let us
play now an' then along the road. All of us virchewosoes is locoed to
do good work, so that Sni-a-bar would get reeconciled, an' recognise us
as a commoonal factor.

"'Well do I recall the day of our first public appearance. It's at a
political meetin' an' everything, so far as we're concerned at least,
depends on the imp