going up it,' says I.  'From where, and why how, I dunno. But I kind of like him against my better instincts, Windy.' 

 "Windy spit thoughtfully at a fly fifteen foot away.  'I shouldn't have time to hate him much myself,' says he. 

 "And there you are. That's how I met Brother Sett, and the Big Bend Ranch stuck her head out of the shell." 

 

 

 Oscar's Chance, per Charley 

 "Bhooooooorrr! Bhooooooooooooooorrrrr!"  It was the hollow, melancholy, wild beast-howl of a fog-horn. We were drifting upon a tragic coast, where the great waves slipped up the cliffs noiselessly, to disappear upon the other side. At the time, I was talking to a person who had just been a sort of composite of several of my friends, but was now a gaunt bay mule.  "Isn't it co-o-ld?" I said to him, and shivered. He looked me sternly in the eye.  "Get up!" said he. The vessel struck a rock and trembled violently.  "Get up!" repeated the mule, and there was a menace in his voice now.  "Bhooooooooooorrrrr!" moaned the fog-horn. This was dreadful. But worse followed. The waters gathered themselves and rose into a peak, the mule sliding swiftly to the apex, still holding me with his uncanny eyes. There came a shock, and Oscar said, "For the Lord's sake, kid! They've been braying away on that breakfast horn for the last five minutes. Hustle!" 

 I found myself upon my hands and knees; in a cabin, all right, but the cabin was on the prairie. I looked around, stupid with sleep. The familiar sights met my eye—Oscar tiptoeing about, bow-legged, arms spread like wings, drawing his breath through his teeth, after the fashion of half-frozen people.  Old Charley sat humped up in the corner, sucking his cob pipe. The stove was giving forth a smell of hot iron, and no heat, as usual. On it rested a wash-basin, wherein some snow was melting for the morning ablutions. A candle projected a sort of palpable yellow gloom into the grey icy morning air. I dressed rapidly. As I slept in overcoat and cap, this was no great matter. A pair of German socks and arctics completed my attire. Evidently I had been put upon the floor by the hand of Oscar. For this, when Oscar stretched his nether garment tight, in the act of washing his face, I smote him upon the fulness thereof with a long plug of chewing tobacco. "Aow!" he yelled, recurving like a 

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