Light,
layin' guileful an' cunnin' for invites to drink; an' he execootes
besides small excursions to the O.K. Restauraw for chuck, with now an'
then a brief journey to the Post Office or the New York store. These
visits of Bowlaigs to the last two places, both because he don't get no
letters at the post office an' don't demand no clothes at the store, I
attribootes to motives of morbid cur'osity, that a-way.

"The first real trouble that meets up with Bowlaigs--who's got to be a
y'ar old by now--since Jennie fights the dooel with him with that
broom, overtakes him at the O.K. Restauraw. Missis Rucker for one
thing ain't over fond of Bowlaigs, allegin' as he grows older day by
day he looks more an' more like Rucker. Of course, sech views is
figments as much as the alarms of Tucson Jennie about Bowlaigs
meditatin' gettin' away with little Enright Peets; but Missis Rucker,
in spite of whatever we gent folks can say in Bowlaigs's behalf,
believes firm in her own slanders. She asserts that Bowlaigs as he
onfolds looks like Rucker; an' for her at least that settles the
subject an' she assoomes towards Bowlaigs attitoodes which, would
perhaps have been proper had her charge been troo.

"Still, I'll say for that most esteemable lady, that Missis Rucker
never lays for Bowlaigs or assaults him ontil one afternoon when he
catches the dinin'-room deserted an' off its gyard an' goes romancin'
over, cat-foot an' surreptitious, an' cleans up the tables of what
chuck has been placed thar in antic'pation of supper. The first news
Missis Rucker has of the raid is when Bowlaigs gets a half-hitch on the
tablecloth an' winds up his play by yankin' the entire outfit of
spoons, tin plates an' crockery off onto the floor. It's then Missis
Rucker sallies from the kitchen an' puts Bowlaigs to flight.

"Bowlaigs, who's plumb scared, comes lumberin' over to the Red Light
an' puts himse'f onder our protection. Enright squar's it for him; for
when Missis Rucker appears subsequent with a Winchester an' a knife an'
gives it out cold she's goin' to get Bowlaig's hide an' tallow an' sell
'em to pay even for that dinin'-room desolation of which he's the
architect, Enright counts up the damage an' pays over twenty-three
dollars in full settlement. Does Bowlaigs know it? You can gamble the
limit he knows it; for all the time Missis Rucker is prancin' about the
Red Light denouncin' him, he secretes himse'f, shiverin', behind the
bar; an' when