he shows up in his wigwam walkin' some emphatic,
Jennie'll be down on him like a fallin' star an' accoose him of wakin'
Enright Peets.

"'An' if you-all wakes him,' says Jennie to Dave, sort o' domineerin' at
him with her forefinger, 'he'll be sick; an' if he gets sick, he'll die;
an' if he dies, you'll be a murderer--the heartless deestroyer of your
own he'pless offspring,--which awful deed I sometimes thinks you're
p'intin' out to pull off.' An' then Jennie would put her apron over her
head an' shed tears a heap; while Dave--all harrowed up an'
onstrung--would come stampedin' down to the Red Light an' get consolation
from Black Jack by the quart.

"That's the idee, son; it's impossible to go into painful details, 'cause
I ain't in Dave's or Jennie's confidence enough to round 'em up; but you
onderstands what I means. Jennie's forever hectorin' an' pesterin' Dave
about Enright Peets; an' beyond that she don't pay no more heed, an'
don't have him no more on her mind, than if he's one of these yere little
jimcrow ground-owls you-all sees inhabitin' about dissoloote an'
permiscus with prairie-dogs. What's the result? Dave's sperits begins
to sink; he takes to droopin' about listless an' onregyardful; an' he's
that low an' onhappy his nosepaint don't bring him no more of comfort
than if he's a graven image. Why, it's the saddest thing I ever sees in
Wolfville!

"We-all observes how Dave's dwindlin' an' pinin' an' most of us has a
foggy onderstandin' of the trooth. But what can we do? If thar's ever a
aggregation of sports who's powerless, utter, to come to the rescoo of a
comrade in a hole, it's Enright an' Moore an' Boggs an' Texas Thompson
an' Cherokee an' me, doorin' them days when that neglect of Tucson
Jennie's is makin' pore Dave's burdens more'n he can b'ar. Shore, we
consults; but that don't come to nothin' ontil the o'casion when Doc
Peets takes the tangle in ser'ous hand.

"Thar's a day dawns when Missis Rucker gets exasperated over Dave's
ill-yoosage. Missis Rucker is a sperited person an' she canters over an'
onloads her opinions on Tucson Jennie. Commonly, these yere ladies can't
think too much of one another; but on this one division of the house of
Tutt, Missis Rucker goes out on Dave's angle of the game. An' you-all
should have seen the terror it inspires when Missis Rucker declar's her
hostile intentions.

"It's in the O.K. restauraw, when Missis Rucker, who's feedin' us our
mornin' flap-