IN THE OLD WEST 29 



ences of western life ; and whilst the buffalo hump- 

 ribs and tenderloin are singing away in the pot, 

 preparing for the hunters' supper, we will note 

 down the yarn as it spins from his lips, giving it 

 in the language spoken in the " Far West " : — 



*' 'Twas about calf-time, maybe a little later, 

 and not a hundred year ago by a long chalk, that 

 the biggest kind of rendezvous was held ' to ' to 

 Independence, a mighty handsome little location 

 away up on old Missoura. A pretty smart lot 

 of boys was camped thar, about a quarter from 

 the town, and the way the whisky flowed that 

 time was some now, I can tell you. Thar was old 

 Sam Owins — him as got rubbed out * by the 

 Spaniards at Sacramenty, or Chihuahuy, this boss 

 doesn't know which, but he went under f any- 

 how. Well, Sam had his train along, ready to 

 hitch up for the Mexican country — twenty thun- 

 derin' big Pittsburgh wagons ; and the way his 

 Santa Fe boys took in the liquor beat all — eh, 

 Bill? " 



" Well, it did." 



" Bill Bent — his boys camped the other side 

 the trail, and they was all mountain-men, wagh! 

 — and Bill Williams, and Bill Tharpe (the 

 Pawnees took his hair on Pawnee Fork last 

 spring) : three Bills, and them three's all gone 

 under. Surely Hatcher went out that time; and 



* Killed, "I both terms adapted from the Indian figura- 

 t Died, J tive language. 



