278 BIG GAME SHOOTING IN ALASKA chap. 



was new to me I give it as it was told. " Yes, sir, we see 

 some queer cusses right here in Seattle. A little time back 

 a man came down here from Alaska. He didn't have nothing 

 'cepting just a Malamut sleigh-dog along with him. He'd 

 come from somewhere way back in the Yukon, and was just 

 about dead broke, and you bet he looked real wild and woolly. 

 Feelin' as how he kinder wanted a drink, he walks into a 

 saloon and orders one. Now, sir, this man was a ventrilo- 

 quist, and pretty smart at the job too. The bar-keeper was 

 sorter fond of dorgs, and seeing" this one, says to the man, 

 ' Say, that is a niceish dorg you've got there.' The man says, 

 ' I guess that's so.' The barman said, ' If you want to sell 

 him I will give you $25 for him.' ' No,' says the man, ' I 

 can't sell that dorg ; he is all I've got in the world, and he 

 can talk.' ' How's that ? ' says the barman. The man he 

 takes a ham sandwich and eats it, then he takes another and 

 says to his dorg, ' Would you like a ham sandwich ? ' The 

 dorg looks up and says, ' Yes, please.' The barman he looks 

 scared at that, and leans over the counter to look at the dorg, 

 saying, ' I guess I'll give $50 for that dorg.' ' No,' says the 

 man, ' I can't sell him.' Just then the dorg looks at the sand- 

 wich plate and says, ' Give me another.' By that time the 

 barman was just dead stuck on gettin' that dorg. ' Say, now, 

 I'll give $75 for that dorg.' ' Wal, now^ that's a pile of 

 money,' says the man, ' and I guess that would pay my way 

 down to 'Frisco.' ' It would so, and more too,' says the 

 barman. ' Make it $100,' says the man, ' and the dorg goes.' 

 'All right,' says the barman, '$100 goes, and what shall I do 

 with the dorg ? ' ' Why, come right along and take him now,' 

 says the man. Wal, sir, the barman he puts a rope round 

 the dorg's neck and starts a-leadin' of him away. The dorg 

 he kinder hangs back, and looks at his master, and then 



