IDAHO 141 



nickel's worth of plug while you were down to 

 the stable." 



For this I had to give him "a calling down," 

 because we had agreed to cut out all smoking and 

 chewing until we got hold of some more money. 

 We were both inveterate users of plug tobacco, 

 but I could quit when I had to, while my brother 

 couldn't. To square himself, he gave me half of 

 the plug he bought, and then we both sat down 

 to ruminate over our situation. 



Just when we had about found a solution to 

 our predicament, the hardware man came out 

 and chased us off the stoop for spitting tobacco 

 juice all over it. "What do you think this is; a 

 cow stable?" he asked us. 



We sat down on some farm implements that 

 were piled to one side of the stoop, and my 

 brother said to me, "Hell of a guy; won't even 

 let a feller spit. Let's walk out of their darn old 

 town; its only twelve miles to the next burg." 



"Not me," says I, "I'm going to ride out of 

 this place first-class if I have to swipe a dog to 

 do it." 



And for a while we sat there, trying to think 

 up some scheme, anything to get out of town 

 gracefully. 



I began to walk around a bit, and as I passed 

 a store I heard a man talking about a wagon 

 having come in town for provisions for the crew 

 at the dam. I located the wagon, and when the 

 driver came out of the place I asked him whether 

 he thought a good veterinary surgeon could get 

 anything to do at the dam. He said he didn't 



