. 'Whatever be you-all talkin'
about? You can't spell none no more than me. The first word the Doc
names'll make you look like a pig at church.'

"'All the same'--for Monte's been drinkin', an' allers gets stubborn
in direct proportion to what licker he tucks onder his belt--'all the
same, Dan, as to this yere spellin', I proposes to ask for kyards.
Even if I ain't no Bach'lor of Arts, so long as the Doc don't fire
nothin' at me worse'n words of one syllable, an' don't send 'em along
faster than two at a clatter, your Uncle Monte'll get thar, collars
creakin', chains a-rattlin', with both hoofs.'

[Illustration: "ONLESS GIRLS IS BARRED," DECLARES FARO NELL, FROM HER
PERCH ON THE CHAIR "I'VE A NOTION TO TAKE A HAND." p. 337.]

"Red Dog not only accepts our challenge, but gets that brash it offers
to bet. Shore, we closes with the prop'sition. It ain't no part of our
civic economy to let Red Dog get by with anything. I reckons, up one
side an' down the other, we puts up the price of eight hundred steers.
Texas and Boggs simply goes all spraddled out at it, while Cherokee
calls down one eboolient Red Dog specyoolator for three thousand
dollars. It's Wolfville ag'inst Red Dog, the roole to govern, 'Miss
an' out!'

"The excitement even reaches the gentler sect.

"'Which onless girls is barred,' declar's Nell, speakin' from her
lookout cha'r the second evenin' before the spellin' school is held,
'I've a notion to take a hand.'

"'It wouldn't be a squar' deal, Nellie,' says Texas. 'With you in,
everybody'd miss a-purpose.'

"'I don't see why none,' says Nell.

"'For two reasons; first, because you're dazzlin'ly beautiful; an',
second, because Cherokee's too good a shot.'

"'Shore,' says Boggs, plantin' a stack of reds open on the high kyard.
'Them contestants'd all lay down to you, Nellie. You certainly don't
reckon Cherokee'd set thar, him all framed up with a Colt's .45, an'
be that ongallant as to permit some clown to spell you down?'

"Nell don't insist, an' the turn fallin' 'king-jack,' she nacherally
moves Boggs's reds to the check-rack.

"On the great evenin' Red Dog comes surgin' in upon us, snortin' an'
prancin' an' pitchin'. Which it certainly is a confident band of
prairie dogs. Wolfville's organized and ready, Armstrong's Spellin'
Book Ben party havin' come over from El Paso three days prior.

"Seein' how mighty se'f-possessed them Red Dogs feel, Boggs begins to
grow nervous.

"'You don't reckon, D