Wolfville.

"Thar's opp'sition developed to this. Both Enright an' the Red Dog
chief, as leaders of pop'lar feelin', is afraid that some sport'll
forget that it ain't on the level, an' take to over-actin' his part.

"As the Red Dog chief expresses it:

"'Some gent might be so far carried away by enthoosiasm as to go to
shootin' low, an' some other gent get creased.'

"'The same bein' my notion exact,' Enright chips in. 'Of course, the
gent who thus shoots low would ondenyably do so onintentional; but
what good would that do the party who's been winged, an' who mightn't
live long enough to receive apol'gies?'

"'That's whatever!' says Jack Moore. 'A sham battle's too plumb apt to
prove a snare. The more, since everybody's so onused to 'em 'round
yere. A gent, by keepin' his mind firm fixed, might manage to miss
once or twice; but soon or late he'd become preoccupied, an' bust some
of the opp'sition before he could ketch himse'f.'

"Bland, seein' opinion's ag'inst a sham battle, withdraws the motion,
an' does it plenty graceful for a gent who's onable to stand.

"'Enough said,' he remarks, wavin' a acquiescent paw. 'Ante, an' pass
the buck.'

"The Lightnin' Bug, speakin' from the Red Dog side, insists that in
the reg'lar course of things thar's bound to be oratory. In that
connection he mentions a sharp who lives in Phoenix.

"'Which I'm shore,' says the Bug, 'he'd be gladly willin' to assist;
an' you hear me he's got a tongue of fire! Some of you-all sports must
have crossed up with him--Jedge Beebe of Phoenix?'

"'Jedge Beebe?' interjecks Monte, who's given a hostler his proxy to
take out the stage because of thar bein' onlimited licker; 'me an' the
Jedge stands drinkin' together for hours the last time he's in Tucson.
But you're plumb wrong, Bug, about him bein' eloquent.'

"'Wrong?' the Bug repeats, mighty indignant.

"'Of course,' says Monte, rememberin' how easy heated the Bug is, an'
that he looks on six-shooters as argyooments, 'I don't mean he can't
talk none; only he ain't what the Doc yere calls no Demosthenes.'

"'Did you ever hear the Jedge talk?' demands the Bug.

"'Which I shore does,' insists Monte; 'I listens to him for two hours
that time in Tucson. It's when they opens the Broadway Dance Hall.'

"'Whatever is his subject?' asks the Bug, layin' for to ketch Monte;
'what's the Jedge talkin' about?'

"'I don't know,' says Monte, wropped in his usual mantle of
whiskey-soaked innocence; 'h