'When I first weds Tucson Jennie that time, I
doubts them tenets. That's over a year ago, an' you bet I'm settin'
yere to-day in possession of a new faith. It takes time to teach me,
but I now sees that Tucson Jennie's the onfalterin' mouth-piece of
eternal trooth; the full partner of Providence, a-holdin' down the
post of lookout; an' that when she sets forth things, them things is
decreed an' foreordained.'"
And now my friend lapsed into silence and began to reload his pipe.
"I used to smoke Lone Jack out on the plains," he murmured, "or
mebby Frootes an' Flowers; but I don't know! I figgers this yere
Bull Durham's got more force of char'cter."
Then came more silence. But the night was young; I was disposed to
hear further of Wolfville and its worthy citizens. My readiest
method was to put forth a question.
"But how about yourself?" I asked. "Do you, like Hall and Boggs,
believe that Heaven especially interferes with the plans of man; or
that a challenge, direct or otherwise, to the Powers Above, is
liable to earn reply?"
"I states ag'in," he retorted, puffing a calmative cloud the while,
"I states ag'in: Thar's no sooperstition ridin' the ranges of my
breast. Yet I sees enough in a long an' more or less eventful life--
not to say an ill-employed life--to know that Providence packs a
gun; an', as more than one scoffer finds out, she don't go heeled
for fun.
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