makes me think it was one or the other is because I
remember the big flume wasn't finished when he first came to the camp;
but any way he was the curiosest man about always betting on any thing
that turned up you ever see, if he could get anybody to bet on the other
side; and if he couldn't, he'd change sides. Any way that suited the
other man would suit him--any way just so's he got a bet, _he_ was
satisfied. But still he was lucky, uncommon lucky; he most always come
out winner. He was always ready and laying for a chance; there couldn't
be no solitry thing mentioned but that feller'd offer to bet on it, and
take any side you please, as I was just telling you. If there was a
horse-race, you'd find him flush, or you'd find him busted at the end of
it; if there was a dog-fight, he'd bet on it; if there was a cat-fight,
he'd bet on it; if there was a chicken-fight, he'd bet on it; why, if
there was two birds sitting on a fence, he would bet you which one would
fly first; or if there was a camp-meeting, he would be there reg'lar, to
bet on Parson Walker, which he judged to be the best exhorter about
here, and so he was, too, and a good man. If he even seen a straddle-bug
start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to
get wherever he was going to, and if you took him up, he would foller
that straddle-bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was
bound for and how long he was on the road. Lots of the boys here has
seen that Smiley, and can tell you about him. Why, it never made no
difference to _him_--he would bet on _any_ thing--the dangdest feller.
Parson Walker's wife laid very sick once, for a good while, and it
seemed as if they warn't going to save her; but one morning he come in,
and Smiley asked how she was, and he said she was considerable
better--thank the Lord for his inf'nit mercy--and coming on so smart
that, with the blessing of Prov'dence, she'd get well yet; and Smiley,
before he thought, says, "Well, I'll risk two-and-a-half that she don't,
any way."

This-yer Smiley had a mare--the boys called her the fifteen-minute nag,
but that was only in fun, you know, because, of course, she was faster
than that--and he used to win money on that horse, for all she was so
slow and always had the asthma, or the distemper, or the consumption, or
something of that kind. They used to give her two or three hundred yards
start, and then pass her under way; but always at the fag-end of the
race