ght's deescribes as a 'Theological Survey' of some
waste land he has on Gingham Mountain, an' finds coal. An' after that
he's rich. Thus, in his old age, but chipper as a coopful of catbirds,
he comes rackin' into town, allowin' he'll take a last look at his
nephy, Sam, before he cashes in.

"His name is Stallins, bein' he's kin to Enright on his mother's side,
an' since thar's nine ahead of him--Enright's mother bein' among the
first--an' he don't come along as a infant ontil the heel of the
domestic hunt that a-way, he's only got it on Enright by ten years in
the matter of age.

[Illustration: THE SECOND EVENING OLD STALLINS IS WITH US, DAN BOGGS AN'
TEXAS THOMPSON UPLIFTS HIS AGED SPERITS WITH THE "LOVE DANCE OF THE
CATAMOUNTS." p. 43.]

"No, I shore shouldn't hes'tate none to mention him as a top-sawyer
among liars, the same bein' his constant boast an' brag. He accepts
the term as embodyin' a compliment, an' the quick way to get his
bristles up is to su'gest that his genius for mendac'ty is beginnin'
to bog down.

"For all that, Enright imparts to me, private, that the old gent as a
liar ain't a marker to his former se'f.

"'You've heard tell,' Enright says, 'of neighborhood liars, an'
township liars, an' county liars; an' mebby even of liars whose fame
as sech might fill the frontiers of a state. Take my uncle, say forty
years ago, an' give him the right allowance of baldface whiskey, an'
the coast-to-coast expansiveness of them fictions he tosses off shore
entitles him to the name of champion of the nation. Compar'd to him,
Ananias is but a ambitious amatoor.'

"It's the second evenin' old Stallins is with us, an' Enright takes
him over to Hamilton's Dance Hall, whar Boggs an' Texas--by partic'lar
reequest--uplifts his aged sperits with that y'ear-splittin' an'
toomultuous minyooet, the 'Love Dance of the Catamounts.' Which the
exh'bition sets his mem'ry to millin', an' when we gets back to the
Red Light he breaks out remin'scent.

"'Sammy,' he says to Enright, 'you was old enough to rec'llect when I
has that location over on the upper Hawgthief? Gents,' he goes on,
turnin' to us, 'it's a six-forty, an'--side hill, swamp an' bottom--as
good a section as any to be crossed up with between the Painted Post
an' the 'Possum Trot. It's that "Love Dance of the Catamounts" which
brings it to my mind, since it's then an' thar, by virchoo of a
catamount, I wins my Sarah Ann.

"'She's shore the star-eyed Venus of