第12章
"It's a month later, an' Bill is romancin' along on one of them Nevada mountain-meadow trails, when he happens upon a low, squatty dugout, the same bein' a camp rather than a house, an' belongs with a hay ranche.In the door is standin' a most ornery seemin' gent, with long, tangled ha'r an' beard, an' his clothes looks like he's shorely witnessed times.The hands of this ha'ry gent is in his pockets, an' he exhibits a mighty soopercilious air.Bill pulls up his cayouse for a powwow.
"How far is it to a place where I can camp down for the night?' asks Bill.
"'It's about twenty miles to the next wickeyup,' says the soopercilious gent.
"'Which I can't make it none to-night, then,' says Bill.
"'Not on that hoss,' says the soopercilious gent, for Bill's pony that a-way is plenty played.
"'Mebby, then,' says Bill, ` I'd better bunk in yere.'
"'You can gamble you-all don't sleep yere,' says the soopercilious gent; 'none whatever!'
'An' why not?' asks Bill.
"'Because I won't let you,' says the soopercilious gent, a-bitin'
off a piece of tobacco.'This is my camp, an' force'ble invasions by casooal hold-ups like you, don't preevail with me a little bit.Iresents the introosion on my privacy.'
"'But I'll have to sleep on these yere plains,' says Bill a heap plaintif.
"'Thar's better sports than you-all slept on them plains,' says the soopercilious gent.
"Meanwhile, thar's a move or two, speshully the way he bats his eyes, about this soopercilious gent that sets Bill to rummagin'
'round in his mem'ry.At last he asks:
"'Is your name Rawlins?'
"'Yes, sir, my name's Rawlins,' says the soopercilious gent.
"'Jim Rawlins of Roanoke?'
"'Jim Rawlins of Roanoke;' an' the soopercilious gent reaches inside the door of the dugout, searches forth a rifle an' pumps a cartridge into the bar'l.
"'Stan' your hand, Jim!' says Bill, at the same time slidin' to the ground with the hoss between him an' his relatif; 'don't get impetyoous.I'm your brother Bill.'
"'What!' says the soopercilious gent, abandonin' them hostile measures, an' joy settlin' over his face.'What!' he says; 'you my brother Bill? Well, don't that beat grizzly b'ars amazin'! Come in, Bill, an' rest your hat.Which it's simply the tenderness of hell Idon't miss you.'
"Whereupon Bill an' Jim tracks along inside an' goes to canvassin'
up an' down as to what ensooes doorin' them forty years they've been parted.Jim wants to know all about Roanoke an' how things stacks up in old Virginny, an' he's chuckin' in his questions plenty rapid.
"While Bill's replyin', his eye is caught by a frightful-lookin'
female who goes slyin' in an' out, a-organizin' of some grub.She's the color of a saddle, an' Bill can't make out whether she's a white, a Mexican, a Digger Injun or a nigger.An' she's that hideous, this female is, she comes mighty near givin' Bill heart failure.Son, you-all can't have no idee how turribie this person looks.She's so ugly the flies won't light on her.Yes, sir! ugly enough to bring sickness into a fam'ly.Bill can feel all sorts o'
horrors stampedin' about in his frame as he gazes on her.Her eyes looks like two bullet holes in a board, an' the rest of her feachers is tetotaciously indeescrib'ble.Bill's intellects at the awful sight of this yere person almost loses their formation, as army gents would say.At last Bill gets in a question on his rapid-fire relatif, who's shootin' him up with queries touchin' Roanoke to beat a royal flush.
"'Jim,' says Bill, sort o' scared like, 'whoever is this yere lady who's roamin' the scene?'
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"Then Jim goes surgin' off all spraddled out about the noomerous an'
manifest excellencies of this female, an' holds forth alarmin' of an' concernin' her virchoos an' loveliness of face an' form, an' all to sech a scand'lous degree, Bill has to step outdoors to blush.
"'An', Bill,' goes on Jim, an' he's plumb rapturous, that a-way, 'may I never hold three of a kind ag'in, if she ain't got a sister who's as much like her as two poker chips.I'm co'tin' both of 'em mighty near four years before ever I can make up my mind whichever of 'em I needs.They're both so absolootely sim'lar for beauty, an'
both that aloorin' to the heart, I simply can't tell how to set my stack down.At last, after four years, I ups an' cuts the kyards for it, an' wins out this one.'
"'Well, Jim,' says Bill, who's been settin' thar shudderin' through them rhapsodies, an' now an' then gettin' a glimpse of this yere female with the tail of his eye: 'Well, Jim, far be it from me, an'
me your brother, to go avouchin' views to make you feel doobious of your choice.But candor's got the drop on me an' compels me to speak my thoughts.I never sees this sister of your wife, Jim, but jest the same, I'd a heap sight rather have her.'
"An' as I observes previous," concluded the old gentleman, "I feels about Japs an' Injuns like Bill does about Jim's wife that time.Inever sees no Japs, but I'd a mighty sight rather have 'em."There was another pause after this, and cigars were produced.For a time the smoke curled in silence.Then my friend again took up discussion.
"Thar comes few Injuns investigatin' into Wolfville.Doorin' them emutes of Cochise, an' Geronimo, an' Nana, the Apaches goes No'th an' South clost in by that camp of ours, but you bet! they're never that locoed as to rope once at Wolfville.We-all would shorely have admired to entertain them hostiles; but as I su'gests, they're a heap too enlightened to give us a chance.