“I saw all of Benton I wish to see,” I granted. “You’ve been there?”
“I won four bits, an’ then yu bet I quit,” he greedily proclaimed. “I was too smart for ’em. I ’laow yu’re a greenie, ain’t yu?” 165
“In some ways I am, in some ways I’m not.”
“I ’laow yu aim to go through with this train to Salt Lake, do yu?”
“That’s the engagement I’ve made with Mr. Jenks.”
“Don’t feel too smart, yoreself, in them new clothes?”
“No. They’re all I have. They won’t be new long.”
“Yu bet they won’t. Ain’t afeared of peterin’ aout on the way, be yu? I ’laow yu’re sickly.”
“I’ll take my chances,” I smiled, although he was irritating in the extreme.
“It’s four hunderd mile, an’ twenty mile at a stretch withaout water. Most the water’s pizen, too, from hyar to the mountings.”