oafed around a little town, wearin' the counters shiny,
entertainin' myself every minute by wonderin' what in thunder I'd
do with the next one, till Fate, that's always seemed ready and
eager to butt into my affairs, sent me down to the railroad station
one morning.

"There got off'n the train a little stout man, with a clean baby
skin and clean baby eyes. He looked as if he'd got born into this
wicked world with a bald spot, gray side-whiskers and a pair of
gold-rimmed specks. He made me feel sad--not that he weren't
cheerful enough, but his rig was that of a parson, and a parson
naturally reminded me of matrimony, and there was only one thing
worse than loafing around Jim Creek, and that was matrimony.
'Yes,' I says to myself, lookin' at that nice, clean old gentleman,
'he little knows the trouble he's made in this world. And yet,'
thinks I, willing to be square, 'I don't know as you could have
kept 'em apart, even if there weren't no ministers. Man is born to
trouble as a powder-mill is to fly upward. Male and female He made
'em, after their kind; and it's only reasonable that they've been
after their kind ever since. And more'n that, that gentleman would
have checked my wild career--he'd have held me down to one. So why
should I wish to walk on his collar?'

"Whilest I was Hamlettin' to myself like that the old boy talked to
the station agent. Billy leaned on the truck and pointed to me.
'There's your man right now,' says he; 'Mr. E. G. Washington
Scraggs, the most famous guide and hunter in Arizona. I ain't got
a doubt you can secure his services,' and off goes Billy.

"Railroad men get used to takin' life on the run, from eatin' to
jokes. Bill never waited to see the effect of his little spring on
me.

"My friend comes up to me. 'Is this Mr. Scraggs?' he says.

"'I am a modest man by nature,' says I; 'and yet I cannot deny it.'

"He made me a bow. I made him a bow.

"'I am told, Mr. Scraggs,' says he, 'that you are a celebrated
guide and hunter?'

"'If you go through this land believing all that's told you,' says
I, 'you'll have a queer sensation in your head. However, I can do
plain guiding and hunting, all right. What am I to guide, and who
am I to hunt?'

"'I shall explain to you," says he, taking off his specks and
tapping his hand with 'em--he was a nice, home-raised old
gentleman, but he sure did think his own affairs was interesting.
'It is this way,' says he: 'my ministerial labo