I explains that
I'm not jest then fit for combat, sufferin' as I be from that
overabundance of dog an' b'ar. The Purple Blossom is plumb p'lite,
an' says he don't hunger to whip no cripples. Then he names a day
two months away when he allows he'll shore descend from Gingham
Mountain, melt me down an' run me into candles to burn at the
weddin' of him an' Polly Hawks. Then we drinks together, all
fraternal, an' he gives me a chew of tobacco outen a box, made of
the head of a bald eagle, in token of amity, that a-way.
"'But that rumpus between the Purple Blossom an' me never does come
off; an' them rites over me an' Polly is indef'nitely postponed. The
fact is, I has to leave a lot. I starts out to commit a joke, an' it
turns out a crime; an' so I goes streakin' it from the scenes of my
yoothful frolics for safer stampin' grounds.
"'It's mebby six weeks followin' them declarations of the Purple
Blossom. It's co't day at War-whoop Crossin', an' the Jedge an'
every law-sharp on that circuit comes trailin' into camp. This yere
outfit of Warwhoop is speshul fretful ag'inst all forms of gamblin'.
Wherefore the Jedge, an' the state's attorney, an' mebby five other
speculators, at night adjourns to the cabin of a flat-boat which is
tied up at the foot of the levee, so's they can divert themse'fs
with a little draw-poker without shockin' the hamlet an' gettin'
themse'fs arrested an' fined some.
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