I had
to mind him."

"But what did you come to Mobile for?:"

"Well, I'll tell you. I got talking to a fellar, and he told me
that if I would go over with him on the ship that he would buy all
my critters; so I asked pap if I might go, and he said yes; but
I'm kinder sorry I went now, for I got lost from that fellar and
never laid eyes on him after we got over thar. He told me to pay
his fare, and when he got over thar he would give me back the money;
but I reckon he went after the money and got lost. But I haint
going to say a word to pap, for I got to pranking with a fellow on
the ship, and I'll be gol'darned if I didn't lose $1,000; but pap
won't find it out, for I had $10,000 what I been saving to buy me
a ranch, and I shan't tell pap anything about it."

"How did you come to lose your money, stranger?" I asked.

"Wall, look here; I never seen such a thing. He had some tickets,
and he would mix 'em up--sorter jumble 'em together--and then he
would bet you that you couldn't lift the one that had the little
baby on it. So I just watched it, and I just cut my coat to get
the money, for mam she sewed it up before I started. Well, I just
laid down my greenbacks, and I didn't lift the boy, and he kept my
greenbacks; then he went off and left his tickets lying on the
bench, so I'm going to take them home with me, but I won't tell I
lost anything."

"Let me see them," I said.

"Will you give 'em back?"

"Oh, certainly." So he pulled them out, and my friend and myself
had never seen anything like them before; so I said, "Show us how
he did the trick." He showed us the best he could; then I caught
up the one with the boy on it, and turned the corner and showed it
to my friend, and gave him a quiet hunch under the table as I laid
it down, and asked if he would bet on it.

He said, "When I get back home I'm going to larn it, so I can win
all the money I want."

"Will you bet a drink that I can't guess it the first time?" I said.

He mixed them up and observed, "I'll go you a dram."

I bet, and my friend was pleased to see what a fool I was; and I
told my friend to bet him another dram that he could pick it up.
But I said, "Don't touch the one that has the corner turned up;"
and he did as I said. That made the cow-boy laugh, who broke out
in his peculiar vernacular: "Oh, you old fools with store clothes
on can't tell it no how." Then I observed to my friend, "I am
going to have some of that money; for