“I’m down off a farm up Dawson way owned by his uncle—this here kid I’m talkin’ ’baout. And if he’s settin’ roun’ here anywheres an’ hears me tell any lies ’baout him he can up an’ call me a liar. Then I’ll let him have—jes—two—shots—that’ll shut ’im up.”
“Gracious!” Some lady said shuddering. “Is he a lunatic?”
“Two shots, one big and one little I got in my pocket and I’ll tell him to his face that he’s a little rascal of a prince. Yer happen ter be anywheres around, Westy?”
Silence, save for nervously fidgeting figures and people down in front turning and craning to see this strange apparition.
“Stand up, Westy, cause yer got ter go through with it and I’m down off the farm ter take care o’ that. Some o’ you youngsters make him stand up, wherever he is.”
They made him stand up, and there he stood, nervous, ashamed, gulping. He longed to be near Ira, to say “This is my friend,” yet he could not bring himself even to look at him.
“There yer are—thanks, you boys. Now, mister, that there kid had a hunderd dollars saved up ter go to Yallerstone Park; he worked fer it, chorin’ roun’ on the farm, helpin’ me hayin’ an’ what all. He starts home with his hunderd dollars an’ sees a deer in the woods what’s been dropped but ain’t killed—don’t leave ’im sit down, you boys.
“Now, mister, he shoots that deer in the head and kills it ter end its sufferings. He don’t know no more ’baout shootin’ than a drunken maniac but at two or three inches he killed his deer. All right, mister. Then he goes ter Barrett’s, a little settlement up our way. I d’no what he goes fer. But I’m thinkin’ he goes ter see the man that shot that deer first off. Leastways, when that man got the blame like he deserved, this kid he up and says it was him killed the deer. So ’twas, the little rascal, but you see how ’twas. Well, he gets arrested an’ he pays out his precious hunderd dollars and comes home and says he killed a deer and gets a good tongue lashin’ and loses his gun, but he sticks fast.
“Now all I come here fer now is ter let you folks in onter that stunt o’ his an’ ask you if he gets his trip to the Yallerstone that he cheated himself out of, or not. I don’t know nuthin’ ’baout kind turns ’cause I ain’t never did none, but I wanter know if this here kid gets his trip out Yallerstone way or not. Now, if I’m lyin’ he’ll tell yer so, ’cause I understand these scout fellers don’t lie. I jes wanter know if he gets his trip out Yallerstone way or not.”