My friend then asked him if he would not join us in a drink.
"I'll jine yer in a dram; but I'll be gol darned if you don't look just like a chap what dinkered me out of $1,000 when I got off at Cincinnati to see the town; but he wasn't so big."
That made my friend laugh. He asked Jack how he lost his money.
"Wall, I'll tell yers. I went into a place what thar was a big glass full of beer painted on the winder to get a dram, and a nice- looking chap got talking to me, and perty soon he asked me to have a dram along with him. Then another fellar what was thar, he axed us if we ever played Rock-mountain euchre. He had some tickets, and he would jumble 'em up, and then we would bet yer on 'em. This nice-looking chap he bet him, and he win $500. Wall, I just planked down my money, and the fellar win it; but he gave me the tickets for a dram, and I'm goin' to take 'em out what pap lives—but I won't tell pap I lost anything, fur he don't know how much I got fur my farm."
My friend said, "Why, Devol, he has been playing three-card monte."
I told him not to give me away, and I would get the fellow to play the game for us. Then I said to old Jack:
"What are you going to do with the tickets when you get out to
Texas?"
"Wall, I'm goin' to larn 'em, and when I get out to pap's I'll win all the money them gol-darned cow-boys hev got."
"Do you think you can learn them well enough to win their money?"
"Oh, yes; I'm larnen 'em all the time, and sometimes I can mix 'em up so I fool myself."