, and you didn't put the kybosh on
him easy. So it went with all of us. That ram come out of
no-where-at-all another night and patted me on the stummick so I pretty
near fainted. I tried to twist his cussed head off his shoulders, but
he'd knocked the wind out of me so it was like fightin' an army in a
nightmare. I was glad when the boys come out and pried me loose. Oh,
oh! How we hated that woolly, blaatin' fool of a sheep!

[Illustration: "A ha ha! cut in two in the middle"]

"Well," says Windy, "I'm layin' fur th' day he snaggles himself up with
Foxey Bill. You're goin' to see a nice quiet sheep after that happens."

[Illustration: "That woolly, blaatin' fool of a sheep"]

The rest of us had lots of faith in Billy, but we couldn't see where he
stood a show to win.

"Shucks!" says Steve. "The sheep'll knock the bacon out of him. The
Lord knows I don't want to see it, but that's what's got to happen.
Poor Bill ain't onto his style of fightin' at all. You know how pigs
make war--standin' side by side, tryin' to hook each other in the
flank, gruntin' and circlin' around with little quick steps--how's that
goin' to apply to this son-of-a-gun that hits you a welt like a
domestic cannon and then chases himself off to the sky-line for another
try?"

[Illustration: "Chases himself off to the sky-line for another try"]

"Well," cuts in the Doctor. "I ain't a-sayin' _how_--but Bill _does_
him, all the same--bet your life."

"You talk feeble minded," says Steve. "Nobody'd more like to believe
you than me, but the points ain't on the cards. It'll be just like
that Braddock's campaign agin the Injuns. There goes the Britishers
(that's Bill) amblin' gaily through the woods, dressed up in red and
marchin' arm to arm, for fear some careless Injun would miss 'em, and
there's the Injuns (that's that durned ram) off in the woods jumpin' up
and down with pleasure and surprise. 'Oh, Jimmy!' hollers the Injun to
his little boy. 'Run get grandpa, Towser, mama, and the
baby--everybody's goin' to pick one of these and take it home--no Injun
so poor but what he's entitled to at least one Englishman.'"

"That's all right," says Windy. "But where's your Injun now?"

"Well," says Steve, flabbergasted, "that's kind of true, too; he has
vanished some."

"I bet you money," says the Doctor, "that Bill does him."

"I hate to rob the poor in mind," says Steve. "And yet I'd like to
lose that bet--make it a month's wages?"