She's shore a-comin'. This yere Billy
is so plumb in the air, mental, he never does know it, an' he dies
ten hours before the old lady drives in. But Wolfville's ready.
That's the time when the whole band simply suspends everythin' to
lie.
"Whiskey Billy is arrayed in Doc Peets' best raiment, so, as Peets
says, he looks professional like a law sharp should. An' bein' as we
devotes to Billy all the water the windmill can draw in a hour, he
is a pattern of personal neatness that a-way.
"Enright--an' thar never is the gent who gets ahead of that old
silver tip--takin' the word from Peets in advance, sends over to
Tucson for a coffin as fine as the dance-hall piano, an' it comes
along in the stage ahead of Billy's mother. When she does get thar,
Billy's all laid out handsome an' tranquil in the dinin'-room of the
O. K. Restauraw, an' the rest of us is eatin' supper in the street.
It looks selfish to go crowdin' a he'pless remainder that a-way, an'
him gettin' ready to quit the earth for good; so the dinin'-room
bein' small, an' the coffin needin' the space, the rest of us
vamoses into the causeway, an' Missis Rucker is dealin' us our chuck
when the stage arrives.
"Thar's a adjournment prompt, however, an' we-all goes over to cheer
up Whiskey Billy's mother when she gets out.
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