weeks!

"The bar we was workin' had a tunnel about a hundred foot long.
Follerin' the pay streak made us turn at right angles, so it was
dark back there. One day Mr. Pete was pushin' the car whilest I
got dinner and his candle burned out. He takes a stick of giant
powder, puts cap and fuse on it, lights it careful, jabs it in a
frame for a candle, and trots for outdoors with the car--never
knowin' anything onusual had took place. Just as I slapped the
last flapjack and straightened up to yell, 'Come and get it!' here
come Pete and the car like magic right acrosst the creek, followed
by the most dust I ever see in my life.

"I watched him end-over-ending as he come, and I couldn't get near
enough to the happenings to even wonder why.

"He landed on top of a quakin' asp and the car rolled over the
dinner.

"I ain't declarin' that I was perfectly reasonable; I was
surprised. When I was young and soople I've done twenty-odd foot
in a running jump, but to see a man jump two hundred foot and carry
a hand-car along with him was a branch of sport new to me, and
perticler when done by a man like Pete.

"'Why,' says I, as I climb the tree and helped him down, 'however
did you come to do it?'

"'I dunno, Zeke,' says he, 'honest to Gosh'--Pete never used a
cuss-word--'honest to Gosh,' says he; 'I dunno. The last I
remember was thinkin' why this here law of gravitation couldn't be
made to work as a man wanted it, when "bump" says somethin' behind
me, and I went right along, as you see. I tried to figger it out,
comin', but turning handsprings made me dizzy.'

"These are points to show life as lived by my friend Pete Douglass.
His autogeography would be plumb full of happenin's. At first
sight, lookin' careless, you'd say, 'Why, here's the most
unforchinit cuss I ever heard about,' but on a sober thought, to a
man accustomed to havin' sober thoughts, it seemed as if there was
luck in the bank, to pull through such performances and live to
tell the tale.

"I mentioned this idee to Pete.

"'Why'' says he, 'I should holler horray every time I'm most
killed,' he says. 'Is that what you mean?'

"'Look-a-here,' says I, 'I'm able to mean all I'm capable of
meanin' without any outside help. I mean you're the great human
paradox--less human and more paradox then I've seen advertised at a
circus--and whilest you're perpetual dodging one horn or t'other of
a dilemma, any friend of yours is getting bunked square between