IN THE OLD WEST 31 



it, I heard, but can't b'lieve it, nohow. If them 

 Spaniards wasn't bom for shootin', why was 

 beaver made? You was with us that spree, 

 Jemmy ? " 



" No sirre-e; 1 went out when Spiers lost his 

 animals on Cimmaron: a hundred and forty mules 

 and oxen was froze that night, wagh ! " 



" Surely Black Harris was thar ; and the 

 darndest liar was Black Harris — for lies tumbled 

 out of his mouth like boudins out of a bufler's 

 stomach. He was the child as saw the putrefied 

 forest in the Black Hills. Black Harris come in 

 from Laramie; he'd been trapping three year an' 

 more on Platte and the other side; and, when he 

 got into Liberty, he fixed himself right off like 

 a Saint Louiy dandy. Well, he sat to dinner one 

 day in the tavern, and a lady says to him — 



" ' Well, Mister Harris, I hear you're a great 

 trav'ler.' 



" ' Trav'ler, marm,' says Black Harris, ' this 

 nigger's no trav'ler; I ar' a trapper, marm, a 

 mountain-man, wagh ! ' 



" ' Well, Mister Harris, trappers are great 

 trav'lers, and you goes over a sight of ground in 

 your perishinations, I'll be bound to say.' 



" ' A sight, marm, this coon's gone over, if 

 that's the way your stick floats.* I've trapped 

 beaver on Platte and Arkansa, and away up on 



* Meaning — if that's what you mean. The "stick" is 

 tied to the beaver-trap by a string, and, floating on the 



