“Loan me yore field notes on cubs, will yuh? I’m uh snake specialist and——”
Didn’t Magpie tell th’ perfessor he had one? Shore did. That’s what makes Magpie’s conduct so danged inconsistent. He didn’t have no right to git sore about it. Anyway, it’s showin’ danged little knowledge uh social etikette when uh feller hits yuh on th’ head with uh rock as big as yore fist—especially when yore in bed. Uh course I returns it in th’ proper spirit, but my feelin’s is soarin’ and I shoots high.
Did yuh ever hear half uh dozen long-eared, flea-bitten jackasses split th’ stillness of th’ night with their melodjus voices? Don’t tell me that animiles like that don’t talk to each other. They shore must or they couldn’t know jist when to cut loose all to oncet thataway, and make th’ short hair on th’ back uh yore neck crawl right over and tickle yuh under th’ chin.
That herd of Rocky Mountain canaries cuts loose right over our recumbent forms and scares delirious delight out of our feelin’s fer uh minute. They jist orates one short, “Ha-a-aaw!” and then quits cold.
We stands erect in our blankets and sez things to them jacks, but they jist nods in th’ gloom, and wiggles their ears. They sorta surrounds us, and won’t go away. Not bein’ in need uh any more music, we gits peevish like.
“Let’s go over across th’ crick,” sez Magpie. “Them blasted animile Carusos is too friendly, and it’s uh cinch they’ll stay on this side of th’ crick.”
We ambles down toward th’ crick, still wrapped in our blankets, like uh pair uh Injuns, when all to oncet we gits another sensation.
“Whang! Zee-e-e-e! Whang! Zee-e-e-e!”
Th’ gentle evenin’ is shattered. It’s bad enough to have yore ear-drums shattered, but when each shatter is followed by uh handful uh bird-shot, which “skees” and “zees” across yore form and fills yore eyes with lint from yore blanket, it’s time to investigate. Magpie is near th’ crick bank when it happens, and I looks up jist in time to see Magpie disappear over th’ bank, and uh splash informs me that he is in th’ wet.
“My ——!” I hears uh voice opine. “I believe I hit them. I wish I had some buckshot, but I haven’t and——”