Rucker an' Tucson Jennie,
who, with little Enright Peets, is off to one side--'I think the Doc's
a mighty sight too contracted in his scope.'

"Monte falls by the wayside on 'Scenery,' an' is that preepost'rous
he starts to give Peets an argyooment. Monte spells it 'Seenry.'

"'Whar do you-all get your licence, Doc,' he demands, when Peets tells
him how it's spelled, 'to jam in that misfit "c"? Me havin' drove
stage for twenty years, I've seen as much scenery as any gent present,
an' should shore know how it's spelled. Scenery is what you sees.
"S-e-e" spells see; an' tharfore I contends that "S-e-e-n-r-y" spells
scenery. That "c" you springs on us, Doc, is a solecism, an' as much
out of place as a cow on a front porch.'

"Enright raps Monte down. '"Scenery" is spelled any way which the Doc
says,' declar's Enright, his eye some severe, 'an' I trusts no gent'll
compel the cha'r to take measures.'

"'Say no more,' responds Monte, plenty humble and prompt. 'What I
urges is only to 'licit information. I still thinks, however, that
onder the gen'ral wellfare clause of the constitootion, an' with an
onfenced alphabet to pick an' choose from, a sport ought to have the
inalienable right to spell things the way he likes. Otherwise,
whatever is the use of callin' this a free country? If a gent's to be
compelled to spell scenery with a fool "c," I asks you why was
Yorktown an' wharfore Bunker Hill?'

"Monte, havin' thus onloaded, reetires to the r'ar, coverin' his
chagrin by hummin' a stanzy or two from the well-known ditty, 'Bill,
of Smoky Hill.'

Bill driv three spans of hosses,
An' when Injuns hove in sight,
He'd holler "Fellers, give 'em hell!
I ain't got time to fight."

But he chanced one time to run ag'in
A bullet made of lead,
An' when they brung Bill into town,
A bar'l of tears was shed.

"While Texas an' Boggs an' Tutt an' Cherokee an' Monte an' the rest of
the Wolfville outfit is fallin' like November's leaves, them Red Dog
bandits is fadin' jest as fast. If anything, they're fadin' faster.
They're too p'lite or too proodent to cavil at the presence of
Spellin' Book Ben, an' by third drink time after we starts thar's no
gents left standin' except that Wells-Fargo book-keep sharp for Red
Dog, an' Spellin' Book for us. It's give an' take between 'em for
mebby one hundr