The laughter of the listeners was loud, prolonged, and terminated by a serious round of drinks. Cock Eye was always good that way. He talked brightly and smartly. After several had bought, the bartender served a drink on the house. And then a man came in the front door. The boys gathered around him, made sure he had a drink and then all of them told him what Cock Eye had said when a fellow took an empty bottle out the front door, instead of a full one. It was awfully funny, but Cock Eye had to elucidate his wit himself, because none of the explainers had exactly the lingo and tang with which to tell the story.
The following afternoon along Butte Street Cock Eye, who was off for the day, saw the awkward fellow coming down the side of the square, shambling. The bartender grinned reminiscently so that the stranger angled over and addressed him.
“I don’t know’f I thanked ye for that bottle,” the man said. “I had to have it for a baby a lady had down’t the camp. You see, you fill it full of pretty middlin’ warm water an’ when the kid has the stomach ache you put the bottle on the stomach, which warms it. Course you wrap it in rags.”
“Quite an idea!” Cock Eye approved. “Tha’s all right! But why’d you want it clean for that?”
“I didn’t know they was going to put warm water in it. I thought it was for feedin’ or something.”
“’Tain’t your lady had the baby?”
“No, sir, ’taint. There’s a sickly feller there, the husband, I expect. An old woman come over to my wagon about a bottle. So I come up an’ got it. I’m just lookin’ around myself.”
Cock Eye went on his way. He rolled in his mind this new opportunity. By the time night had come and he was in his white apron behind the bar, he was ready for the boys to come in, which they did in due course.
“Say,” he said, “’member that feller come in last night to get a bottle—empty? Well, I met’m up the street today. He did want it for a baby. There’s a lady had a kid down’t the strollers’ camp and an old woman sent him for it, so’s they could put warm water into it, to warm the baby’s stomach when it ached.”