"Paws, Abry Linkhorn," Ole Bar said, extending his hand and casting his one good eye with approval on the stranger.
The few brief formalities having been dispensed with, the group settled down to stories and discussions, Ole Bar leading off with a graphic description of many of the wonders of Arkansas, and its riches of soil and abundance of game. "There was one feller down thar had a sow," he declared gravely. "She stole an ear of corn and took it down whar she slept at night. She spilt a grain or two on the ground, and then she lay on them. And, gentlemen, believe it or not, before morning the corn shot up, pushed on right through her and the percussion killed her. Next morning she was found flat as a pancake and three-inch corn sticking like green har through her spotted hide."
"I swear!" exclaimed Jo Kelsy.
"Don't cuss; jes go down to that country and see," was Ole Bar's comment.
When Abe Lincoln's time came he was asked for the lizard story he had told at the store the night the flat boat stuck on the dam. In an inimitable way he told the story, joining heartily with the others in the boisterous laughter it called forth, but neither this nor any other of the stories told diverted the mind of Buck Thompson from the main question, this being, "Is he as green as he looks? Will he swap hosses?"
"Don't happen to have a hoss you want to trade, do ye?" Buck at last indifferently questioned.
The interest of the company was at once centered on the answer.
"Want to swap hosses?" Abe Lincoln asked good naturedly.
"Well, I dunno. Do you happen to own a hoss of any kind?"
"Yep," answered the visitor. "Such as it is, I own a hoss."