we're smartin' from the sting an' the other fellers can get the
sense of 'em an' pass judgment on 'em in cold blood without gettin'
stung at all."

"Well, you landed there," sez I, "but the' wasn't one o' those fellers
there to-day, who was a quarter whit more childish'n what you was. Talk
about providin' For their future! Why, the way you went on over this
stray pup, purt' nigh put you in the position of a man who didn't have
no future to provide for, an' what in thunder good can this here pup
ever do you, no matter what happens?"

The pup was sittin' with his head between Bill's knees, an' Bill pulled
his ear a time or two, an' then sez, "I reckon you're right; the whole
earth ain't nothin' but a kindergarten. We all play different games an'
when you stop an' look at it they all cost about the same in the end
an' they all bring in about the same profit; but I'm glad I'm livin'
anyhow; an' I'm glad I've got this dog. I'm special fond o' dogs."

You couldn't help likin' Bill; he allus played in the open an' when he
kept score, he give you all the points you made without fussin' over
'em; but I didn't like the look o' that new outfit on his hip. He was
too impulsive to carry a gun, an' he was too young. Take it when a man
has had some experience in gun-fightin', he gets purty sober over the
effect of it; but a young feller--well, who on earth knows what way a
young feller is goin' to jump when he gets touched up a little?

"That's a purty likely lookin' gun you got there, Bill," sez I. "Do you
savvy how to run one?"

He took it out of his pocket an' looked around, but the' wasn't nothin'
in sight that needed killin', so he began to pop at an old single-tree
lyin' about thirty yards away. The ponies were trottin' along purty
jerky, but hanged if he didn't hit it four times out of six.

"It don't just hang to suit me," sez Bill, "but I'll learn it after a
bit."

I looked at him a moment, but he was merely speakin' his mind, an' I
sez: "Bill, where in Goshen did you get to be a killin' man?"

"Me?" sez Bill. "I never shot a man in my life, but I used to knock
down glass balls purty accurate, an' I've hunted big game in Africa an'
India. I don't want no trouble, but I'm set in my ways about dogs. It's
a heap o' responsibility to raise a pup; but I'm goin' to give this one
a fair show, an' I'm goin' to own him some way or another--I feel it in
my bones that this here dog was sent to me. I had a dog, the livin'
pictur