128 FARMING IT 



Well, I have faced financial crises with coolness, 

 ridiculous situations with dignity, and reverses 

 with resignation, but I never was so completely 

 "graveled" in my life. 



I do not know what the result would have been, 

 whether I should have brained the shrieking 

 maniacs, or the mule and its fool dam, or fled 

 from the place, but just then the sight of that 

 mare nursing that infernal jack -rabbit struck 

 my sense of the ridiculous, and I became the 

 loudest and most abandoned of the shrieking 

 crew. 



When I had in a measure recovered, I invited 

 all hands to the house, and set out whatever I 

 could find as our first libation to the god of treats. 



What that mule cost me since I scarcely dare 

 estimate. 



