ssed."

Bill caught the feller at the next station, an' he telegraphed back
that he'd been havin' trouble with the pup all along the line; an' if
we'd keep him a month, he'd stop an' get him on his way back. He sent
us ten dollars to pay expenses. I never believed that they could send
money by telegraph before; but I saw the agent give it to Bill, with my
own eyes.

We all went to the hotel for dinner, the pup lookin' miserable
sorrowful. Frenchy was goin' to kick the pup out--he was a low-grade
heathen, but he was big an' he didn't mind a little trouble now and
again.

"If this dog can't eat here, neither can I," sez Bill, "but as for your
kickin' him out, you 'd better pray for guidance before you tackle that
job."

"Do you think I'm afraid o' that cur?" sneers Frenchy.

"Cur!" yells Bill. "Cur? Why you maul-headed, misshapen blotch on the
face o' nature, what do you mean by callin' this dog a cur! I never saw
this dog before to-day; but I'll bet ten to one that I can find out who
his great-great-grandfather's great-great-grandfather was; an' I doubt
if you know who your own father happened to be."

Bill was firin' at random o' course, but it looked as if he had hit
somethin'. Frenchy was fair crazy. He pulled out his gun an' came
chargin' down on us. Bill tried to get mine again, but I thought I'd
better run it myself just then. I covered Frenchy, Frenchy covered
Bill, an' the bull pup turned his back on us and looked down toward the
depot, to see if his train was comin' back.

"Better put up your gun, Frenchy," I sez, soft as a wood dove, "or
you'll get this office all mussed up."

Well, he knew me; so we arbitrated a little an' then we all went in an'
the pup et his dinner like any other Christian, payin' for it himself
out of his own money. First thing after dinner, Bill went out an'
bought a gun of his own, an' I scented trouble. He wasn't old enough to
shoot only from principle, not merely for practice.

The' was another young feller at Frenchy's with a lot o' hot money in
his clothes. He seemed to have a deep-felt prejudice against fire, too,
the way he was blowin' it in. When Bill came back, the young feller
tried to buy the dog from him. Bill was polite an' refused to sell,
givin' as the main reason that the dog didn't fully belong to him yet,
but the feller pestered around until finally he offered Bill two
hundred dollars for the dog.

"You ain't no fool when it comes to a dog," sez Bill, "but I