AMOS DECKER. 341 



"Let Pete loose, an' if he goes away I'll give you my 

 claim. The ponies will get better feed if they can range, 

 and a stranger can't catch 'em. We're goin' to stop here 

 all night, and if our ponies go off you can have my claim 

 and its betterments." 



"It's a go; Pete wouldn't fetch more'n $30, an' your 

 claim, with house, well and ten acres of broken prairie 

 all fenced is wuth more'n ten times that." 



His pony was relieved from the hobble, and we went 

 in to dinner. The pike had been boiled, and had a dress- 

 ing of drawn butter, a most unusual thing in that region 

 of plain living and high thinking. But Amos had cows, 

 which are well enough in their way, but have a habit of 

 giving milk as a raw material and leaving its manufac- 

 ture into cheese and butter to other hands. The ques- 

 tion was: Whose hands? If I had puzzled Amos with 

 a few simple tricks of legerdemain, such as are published 

 in many books on the subject, he presented the problem: 

 "Who milked the cows and made the butter?" Of course 

 he could do it, but he was often gone for weeks, and cows 

 must be milked twice each day. He had butter, and that 

 is all we knew. 



After dinner and pipes Warren went out, and reported 

 that our ponies were not in sight. "Gone down in 

 the timber to browse on the mulberry bark," said Amos. 

 "I'll tell you what it is, you fellers make a mistake in 

 thinking them animiles 'ud druther have corn shelled or 

 on the cob than to browse. They'd druther git down 

 in that bottom timber, an' eat hazel brush an' young mul- 

 berry an inch thick 'an to have all the corn 'at you c'd 

 set afore 'em. Let 'em go; they'll look out fer you ef 

 you give 'em salt an' sugar, es Fred says he's done. 

 Don't you worry." 



Morning came, and after breakfast we went to the 



