34 IN THE OLD WEST 



' would a skunk stink if he was froze to stone? 

 No, marm, this child didn't know what putrefac- 

 tion was, and young Sublette's varsion wouldn't 

 shine nohow, so I chips a piece out of a tree and 

 puts it in my trap-sack, and carries it in safe to 

 Laramie. Well, old Captain Stewart (a clever 

 man was that, though he was an Englishman), he 

 comes along next spring, and a Dutch doctor 

 chap was along too. I shows him the piece I 

 chipped out of the tree, and he called it a putre- 

 faction too ; and so, marm, if that wasn't a putre- 

 fied peraira, what was it? For this hoss doesn't 

 know, and he knows fat cow from poor bull, any- 

 how.' 



" Well, old Black Harris is gone under too, I 

 believe. He went to the Parks trapping with a 

 Vide Poche Frenchman, who shot him for his bacca 

 and traps. Darn them Frenchmen, they're no ac- 

 count any way you lays your sight. (Any bacca 

 in your bag, Bill? this beaver feels like chawing.) 



" Well, anyhow, thar was the camp, and they 

 was gain' to put out the next morning; and the 

 last as come out of Independence was that ar 

 Englishman. He'd a nor-west * capote on, and 

 a two-shoot gun rifled. Well, them English are 

 darned fools ; they can't fix a rifle any ways ; but 



* The Hudson's Bay Company, having amalgamated with 

 the American North-West Company, is known by the name 

 "North- West" to the southern trappers. Their employ 6s 

 usually wear Canadian capotes. 



