“My man,” sez th’ perfessor to Magpie, “it is my desire to investigate the grizzly theory tomorrow morning. I suppose you are prepared to guide me to the lair of a fairly good specimen?”
“Shore,” sez Magpie. “Uh course I’ll have to look over my field notes uh while before I can locate edzactly th’ specimen yuh needs. Uh course yuh wants uh grizzly with uh grizzly offspring.”
“Yeaus,” drawls th’ ol’ pelican. “Yeaus, certainly. Quite naturally a grizzly would have a grizzly offspring.”
“Natcherally,” agrees Magpie. “But yuh often finds ’em with black or brown cubs. Yuh see, Perfessor, uh she-grizzly is uh motherly ol’ thing, and when she finds uh female black or brown bear which don’t treat their li’l ones properly she jist natcherally adopts ’em.”
“Quite commendable,” nods th’ perfessor. “I must make a note of it. Such information is quite valuable. But don’t the other bears object to losing the custody of their offsprings?”
“Quite useless,” drawls Magpie. “As I remarked before, uh grizzly won’t argue.”
“I have a feeling that this trip is going to furnish some material for the scientists to ponder over,” laughs th’ doc, gittin’ up and throwin’ away his camel-hair cigaret. “I must see that my shotgun is in good working order.”
“Did yuh ever shoot any fool-hens?” I asks.
Th’ doc grins at me in uh wise sort of uh way and replies:
“Mister Harper, I may be a poor shot, but I’m not that much of a tenderfoot, so don’t try that old joke on me, please.”