it,' says he.

"Well, he had me to a standstill. It was cussed to leave a hurt
man all alone, but I could easy appreciate the way he felt. If a
man can't take no pride in himself the hull blamed business comes
down to shovelin' dirt for nothin'.

"'Pete, I'll do it,' I says, and I shook hands with him.

"'Now, see that!' says he. 'That's the first time you've ever
treated me like an ekal, Zeke; and I can tell you I don't like to
be pitied no more'n any other man. God knows there wouldn't 'a'
been a perter monkey in the bunch, if so it hadn't come I was
scart, or thinkin' of somethin' else, when a hot-box arrived. The
good Lord took the trouble to make me, and it seems kind of
onjustifiable for me to prove He plumb wasted His time. You tell
Maggy I done it for her. I ain't hidin' my light under a bushel,
because I need it to see by. Ouch!' says he. 'This racket hurts!'

"I reckon it did. I sewed him up with a piece of deer-sinew and a
darning-needle. Never was a great hand at tailorin', nohow, and
Pete's hide was that tough I mostly had to pound the needle through
with a chunk of wood.

"Well, I fixed him comfortable as I could, and prepared to start.

"'Zeke,' says he, 'don't'--he kinder swallered hard--'don't be no
longer'n you kin help,' says he. There come a tear in his eye.
'An' take my respects to Maggy,' says he.

"'Shaw, Pete!' says I. 'Now, don't you go borrowin' no
trouble--that's so easy to git without collaterial, it ain't worth
the time. I'll be back imejate.' I patted him on the shoulder and
he squeezed my hand hard.

"'No man could be a better pardner than you be, Zeke,' says he. 'I
ain't a mite afraid of nothin' when that bald head of your'n is in
sight, an' you understand a feller--it's a tough play for a rooster
that don't come by sand natural.'

"'You got plenty of sand, Pete,' says I, 'all the trouble is, you
let it git choked in your hoppers. By-by.' And away I went,
slopin' fast, with Pete's forty-eight dollars down in my jeans.

"I was so took up with his affairs I didn't watch out careful, and
that ain't wise in a hard-luck country. All of a suddent I hears a
v'ice say, 'Puttee hands light uppee!' Sounds like I'd struck a
day nursery, but that ain't so, for just before I hears them words
there popped out from behind a rock a Chinaman--not, by no means,
one of these here little Charlie-boys that does your wash and gives
you a ticket with picters of strange insecks p