e other a little later
on; so I invited him to join me in a smoke. He declined, and told
me that he never smoked a cigar, chewed tobacco, or drank a drop
of liquor in his life. Then I knew he would be a darling sucker;
so I invited him to go over in the smoking-car until I could have
a little smoke myself. He consented, and we went over. We took
a seat just behind a green looking countryman who was smoking a
cob pipe, and it was not long until he turned round and asked us
the name of a station we had just passed. We did not know the
name, so he said: "I don't wonder you can't tell the names, for
I never saw so many towns strung 'long a railroad. Why, out where
I live we don't have a town only about once in fifty miles."

I asked him where he lived. He replied: "When I'm to hum, I lives
on a ranch in Colorado; but I've been to Chicago sellin' of my
steers, and them thar fellows came nigh gettin' the best of me with
some of their new-fangled games; but they gave me some of their
tickets, and when I get home I'll make the boys think I didn't take
my critters to Chicago for nothing. I guess as how they would have
got more of my money, but I left it up at the tavern with the feller
that had his hair all glued down to his forehead as if he thought
it would fall off. So when they got all I had with me they thought
I was broke and let me go."

The old gent asked him to show us how they beat him with the tickets.
He said, "I've not larnt it yet, but I will try and show you;" so
he got out his three tickets and began to throw them on the seat,
explaining that we must guess the ticket with the little boy on
it. We guessed, sometimes right and sometimes wrong. I bent up
the corner of the little boy ticket, and told the old gent not to
turn that card until we got a bet out of the fool; so we would miss
it every time after that. Finally I offered to bet him $500 that
I could turn up the boy ticket the first turn. He said, "No, I
won't bet on her yet, for I can't play her good 'nough." Then I
offered to bet him five to two, so he got out his big roll, saying,
"This is the money I left up to the tavern, so I'll just try you
once." I put up my $500, and he put up $200. I turned the ticket
with the corner bent, and won.

He looked at me a moment, then said to the old gent, who was holding
the stakes, "Give him the money, for gol darned if he didn't get
her fair."

Then I offered to bet him $1,000, but he said, "Yo