APPEARANCE OF IGNORANCE,
HE DIED
A MARTYR TO LEARNING AND
BRAVELY
DEFENDING A RIGHTFUL ORTHOGRAPHY.
THE LANGUAGE MOURNS
HIS LOSS.

"'Which we simply aims by this yere hangin',' says the Red Dog chief
in makin' them explanations, the same bein' addressed to Enright, 'to
save you-all from a disagree'ble dooty.'

"'As how?' deemands Enright, who's a heap deefensive by instinct, an'
never puts down his stack while the kyards is in the hands of the
dealer.

"'As how to wit,' returns the Red Dog chief. 'Troo, this book-keep
malefactor ain't by rights no shore-enough Red Dogger, seein' he's a
importation of the express company's an' at best or worst no more'n a
sojourner within our gates. But, considerin' how he trails in yere
this evenin' in our company, we feels respons'ble. Wharfore, allowin'
that mebby--you-all standin' towards us visitors, that a-way, in the
light of hosts--your notion of hospital'ty gets its spurs tangled up
in your deelib'rations so it impedes the march of jestice, we
intervenes. Which I shorely trusts that no gent present regyards Red
Dog as that ontaught as to go cuttin' in on what's cl'arly a alien
game onasked. Red Dog ain't quite that exyooberantly bumptious, not to
say croodly gay. It's only to relieve the shoulders of you-all from a
burden that we strings said offender up.'

"'_Bueno!_' replies Enright, followin' a dignified pause, like he's
weighin' the Red Dog chief's eloocidations. 'A gent, onless his hand
is crowded by some p'int of honor, allers takes the word of a fellow
gent. In view of which, the execootion you pulls off is yereby
accepted as kindly meant, an' as sech is kindly took. I'm preepared on
behalf of Wolfville to regyard the same as performed in a sperit of
del'cate courtesy. Whatever, Doc, do you-all say?'

"'Like yourse'f, Sam,' says Peets, 'I grasps an' a'preeciates the Red
Dog attitoode. Also, I holds that the business thus constrooed is
calc'lated to cement relations between the two camps which, havin'
their roots in mutyooal esteem, is shore to b'ar froote in fraternal
affection.'

"The Doc then goes on an' onbends in flatterin' asshorances that
nothin' could be finer worded than the Red Dog chief's oration, onless
it's Enright's reply.

"'As a jedge of diction,' he concloods, 'an' a lover of proper
speakin', I'm onreserved in the vie