eeged diurnal to depend upon that
easily exasperated matron for your _frijoles_, same as us. Tucson
Jennie's the best cook in Cochise County, an', bein' her husband that
a-way, you ain't in no place to jedge.'

"'Dan's right, Dave,' declar's Peets; 'surrounded as you be, you can't
sense our peril, that is, sense it proper. Admirable as Tucson Jennie
is as wife an' mother, an' I says this onbiased by bein' one of two
after whom little Enright Peets is named, she's still more admirable
in her role of cook. For which reason, Dave, you-all, when Missis
Rucker threatens us, ain't able, as Dan says, to rightly gauge said
menaces.'

"Them coolinary compliments to Tucson Jennie placates Tutt. He's half
started to bow his neck at Boggs, but they mollifies him.

"'Mighty likely you're correct, Doc,' he returns, his face cl'arin';
'an' I begs Dan's pardon for some things I was goin' to say. My wife
is shore an exempl'ry cook, an' mebby I ain't no fit jedge. None the
less, you-all'll find, as to them hangin's, that this yere goin' about
from pillar to post with 'em is doo to rob 'em of their moral side.'

"'I feels like Dave,' observes Enright, comin' in on the pow-wow.
'Lynchin's, to have weight an' be a credit to us, ought not to be
erratic. A lack of reg'larity about 'em would shake our standin' as a
camp.'

"Monte starts the business that time when Red Dog astounds us with its
del'cacy, by comin' bulgin' in one evenin' with word about how the
leadin' inflooences in Tucson is broke out in a perfect deebauch of
spellin' schools.

"'An' I'm yere to remark,' says he, in his conceited, rum-soaked way,
'that these yere contests contreebootes a mighty meetropol'tan
atmosphere.'

"'Who orig'nates spellin' schools, anyway?' asks Boggs, whose
curiosity is allers at half-cock. 'Which it's the first time I hears
of sech things.'

"'Spellin' schools ain't nothin' new,' Peets replies. 'They're as
common as deelirum treemons in the East.'

"'Which they certainly be,' corroborates Enright. 'Back along the
Cumberland, as far away as when I'm a boy, we has 'em constant same as
chills an' fever. We-all young bucks attends 'em mighty loyal, too,
an' fights to see who-all goes home with the girls. When it comes to
bein' pop'lar, spellin' schools is a even break with gander
pullin's.'

"'Thar's a Tucson kyard sharp,' continyoos Monte, 'over to the
Oriental s'loon, who tells me them spellin' schools is likewise all
the rage in Prescott