"He laughed when I said this, an' told me he wos collectin' them to
take home to be _looked_ at. But that's not wot I was goin' to tell ye
about him," continued Joe; "I wos goin' to tell ye how we made him eat
horseflesh. He carried a revolver, too, this natter-list did, to load
wi' shot as small as dust a'most, an' shoot little birds with. I've
seed him miss birds only three feet away with it. An' one day he drew
it all of a suddent an' let fly at a big bum-bee that wos passin',
yellin' out that it wos the finest wot he had iver seed. He missed the
bee, of coorse, 'cause it wos a flyin' shot, he said, but he sent the
whole charge right into Martin's back--Martin was my comrade's name.
By good luck Martin had on a thick leather coat, so the shot niver got
the length o' his skin."

"One day I noticed that the natter-list had stuffed small corks into
the muzzles of all the six barrels of his revolver. I wondered what
they wos for, but he wos al'ays doin' sich queer things that I
soon forgot it. 'Maybe,' thought I, jist before it went out o' my
mind--'maybe he thinks that'll stop the pistol from goin' off by
accident;' for ye must know he'd let it off three times the first day
by accident, an' well-nigh blowed off his leg the last time, only
the shot lodged in the back o' a big toad he'd jist stuffed into his
breeches pocket. Well, soon after we shot a buffalo bull, so when it
fell, off he jumps from his horse an' runs up to it. So did I, for I
wasn't sure the beast was dead, an' I had jist got up when it rose an'
rushed at the natter-list.

"'Out o' the way,' I yelled, for my rifle was empty; but he didn't
move, so I rushed for'ard an' drew the pistol out o' his belt and let
fly in the bull's ribs jist as it ran the poor man down. Martin came
up that moment an' put a ball through its heart, an' then we went to
pick up the natter-list. He came to in a little, an' the first thing
he said was, 'Where's my revolver?' When I gave it to him he looked
at it, an' said with a solemcholy shake o' the head, 'There's a whole
barrel-full lost!' It turned out that he had taken to usin' the
barrels for bottles to hold things in, but he forgot to draw the
charges, so sure enough I had fired a charge o' bum-bees an' beetles
an' small shot into the buffalo!

"But that's not what I wos goin' to tell ye yit. We corned to a part
o' the plains where we wos well-nigh starved for want o' game, an' the
natter-list got so thin that ye could