you two varmints
the more you remind me of mule colts."

Once the cook refused to pick up the broken thread of his story, John
Levering, our horse-wrangler, preempted the vacated post. "I was over
in Louisiana a few winters ago with a horse herd," said John, "and had
a few experiences. Of all the simple people that I ever met, the 'Cajin'
takes the bakery. You'll meet darkies over there that can't speak a word
of anything but French. It's nothing to see a cow and mule harnessed
together to a cart. One day on the road, I met a man, old enough to be
my father, and inquired of him how far it was to the parish centre,
a large town. He didn't know, except it was a long, long ways. He had
never been there, but his older brother, once when he was a young man,
had been there as a witness at court. The brother was dead now, but if
he was living and present, it was quite possible that he would remember
the distance. The best information was that it was a very long ways off.
I rode it in the mud in less than two hours; just about ten miles.

"But that wasn't a circumstance to other experiences. We had driven
about three hundred horses and mules, and after disposing of over two
thirds of them, my employer was compelled to return home, leaving me to
dispose of the remainder. I was a fair salesman, and rather than carry
the remnant of the herd with me, made headquarters with a man who owned
a large cane-brake pasture. It was a convenient stopping-place, and
the stock did well on the young cane. Every week I would drive to some
distant town eighteen or twenty head, or as many as I could handle
alone. Sometimes I would sell out in a few days, and then again it would
take me longer. But when possible I always made it a rule to get back
to my headquarters to spend Sunday. The owner of the cane-brake and his
wife were a simple couple, and just a shade or two above the Arcadians.
But they had a daughter who could pass muster, and she took quite
a shine to the 'Texas-Hoss-Man,' as they called me. I reckon you
understand now why I made that headquarters?--there were other reasons
besides the good pasturage.

"Well, the girl and her mother both could read, but I have some doubt
about the old man on that score. They took no papers, and the nearest
approach to a book in the house was an almanac three years old. The
women folks were ravenous for something to read, and each time on my
return after selling out, I'd bring them a whole bundle of i