An' then we-all has to rest over one day to win it back at poker.
"Will Injuns gamble? Shore! an' to the limit at that! Of course,
bein', as you saveys, a benighted people that a-way, they're some
easy, havin' no more jedgment as to the valyoo of a hand than Steve
Stevenson, an' Steve would take a pa'r of nines an' bet 'em higher
than a cat's back. We allers recovers our dinero, but thar's time
an' sleep we lose an' don't get back.
"Yes, indeed, son, Injuns common is as ornery as soapweed. The only
good you-all can say of 'em is, they're nacheral-born longhorns, is
oncomplainin', an' saveys the West like my black boy saveys licker.
One time--this yere is 'way back in my Texas days--one time I'm
camped for long over on the Upper Hawgthief. It's rained a heap, an'
bein' as I'm on low ground anyhow, it gets that soft an' swampy
where I be it would bog a butterfly. For once I'm took sick; has a
fever, that a-way. An' lose flesh! shorely you should have seen me!
I falls off like persimmons after a frost, an' gets as ga'nt an'
thin as a cow in April. So I allows I'll take a lay-off for a couple
of months an' reecooperate some.
"Cossettin' an' pettin' of my health, as I states, I saddles up an'
goes cavortin' over into the Osage nation to visit an old compadre
of mine who's a trader thar by the name of Johnny Florer.
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