I has two-bit pieces for
every one of 'em! The face of that orb is simply festered with folks!
She teems with life; ant-hills on election day means desertion by
compar'son. Thar's thousands an' thousands of people, mobbin' about
indiscrim'nate; I sees 'em as near an' plain as I sees Dan.'

"'An' whatever be they doin'?' asks Dan.

"'They're pullin' off a hoss race,' says the Colonel, lookin' steady in
Dan's eye. 'An' you hears me! I never sees sech bettin' in my life.'

"Nacherally we-all feels refreshed with these experiences of Colonel
Sterett's, for as Enright observes, it's by virchoo of sech casooal
chunks of information that a party rounds out a eddication.

"'It ain't what a gent learns in schools,' says Enright, 'that broadens
him an' stiffens his mental grip; it's knowledge like this yere moon
story from trustworthy sources that augments him an' fills him full.
Go on, Colonel, an' onload another marvel or two. You-all must shore
have witnessed a heap!'

"'Them few sparse facts touchin' the moon,' returns Colonel Sterett,
'cannot be deemed wonders in any proper sense. They're merely
interestin' details which any gent gets onto who brings science to his
aid. But usin' the word "wonders," I does once blunder upon a mir'cle
which still waits to be explained. That's a shore-enough marvel! An'
to this day, all I can state is that I sees it with these yere eyes.'

"'Let her roll!' says Texas Thompson. 'That moon story prepares us for
anything.'

"'Texas,' observes the Colonel, a heap severe, 'I'd hate to feel that
your observations is the jeerin' offspring of distrust.'

"'Me distrust!' replies Texas, hasty to squar' himse'f. 'I'd as soon
think of distrustin' that Laredo divorce of my former he'pmeet! An' as
the sheriff drives off two hundred head of my cattle by way of alimony,
I deems the fact of that sep'ration as fixed beyond cavil. No,
Colonel, you has my fullest confidence. I'd go doubtin' the evenhanded
jestice of Cherokee's faro game quicker than distrustin' you.'

"'An' I'm present to say,' returns the Colonel mighty complacent, 'that
I looks on sech assoorances as complimentary. To show which I
onhesitatin'ly reels off that eepisode to which I adverts.

"'I'm only a child; but I retains my impressions as sharp cut an' cl'ar
as though she happens yesterday. It's a time when one of these
legerdemain sharps pastes up his bills in our village an' lets on he'll
give a show in Liberty H