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Then of a sudden he released her with a bitter oath, as the shrieking voice of Mrs. Ransford sounded close by, and the thwack of a heavy broom fell upon his head and shoulders. "I'll teach you, you miser'ble hoboe!" cried the old woman's strident voice as her powerful arms swung her lusty broom aloft. "I'll teach you, you scallawag!"
"How do they call you then?" Elvine took the reins and threw them back over the horse's head, and examined the cinching of the saddle with the touch of experience. "Mostly a 'mule-headed bussock, ma'am. Sometimes I allow they change it to 'slap-sided hoboe, or somethin' more fancy.
It ain't my way. It's me for the shot gun in the stern of the gopher all the time. It's me to mush up the features of any hoboe who don't know better than to grin when I'm throwin' the hot air. I can't stand for the politics of labour where I hand out the wage. A man's a man to me, not one darn slobber of policy. I'm goin' to jump in on that talk. And when I'm thro' "
He had no fears of anybody or anything, either human or superhuman. Death offered him no more terrors than Life. And whichever was his portion he was ready to accept it unquestioningly, unprotestingly. He allowed the hoboe time to get well clear of his shack. Then he stood up and began to pace the room thoughtfully.
"I was kind of wonderin'," Minky went on thoughtfully, "if he don't turn up wot's to happen with them kids?" "I ain't figgered." Bill's interest was apparently wandering. "He'll need to be gettin' around or somethin's got to be done," Minky drifted on vaguely. "Sure." "Y'see, Sunny's jest a hoboe." "Sure."
"Hoboe" the local term for one suffering from his indolent malady as he was, Sunny Oak was a man of some character. Originally this cloak of indolence in which he wrapped himself had been assumed for some subtle reason of his own. It was not the actual man. But so long had he worn it now that he had almost forgotten the real attributes enshrouded in its folds.
At that moment Bill turned from his contemplation of the house beyond the dumps and fixed his fierce eyes on Sunny's grinning face. "Here, you miser'ble hoboe," he cried, "get right up out of that, and hump across to Zip's shack. You're doin' enough gassin' fer a female tattin' bee. Your hot air makes me want to sweat. Now, them kiddies'll need supper.
"It's chock full of alluvial. Don't scarcely need washing. Guess I must ha' paid you two thousand dollars an' more since since we got busy. Your luck was mighty busy when they cast the lots." "Luck? Guess I'm the luckiest hoboe in this layout," Ike cried with a confidence that never seemed to require the support of rye whisky. Beasley's eyes sparkled maliciously. "How about Pete?" he grinned.
A corporation?" Bull asked, knowing full well the answer. He wanted to hear, he wanted to learn all that this man could tell him. Hardy shook his head. "Standing," he said. "That was the guy's name who started it all up. But," he added thoughtfully, "I never rightly knew which feller it was. If it was Standing, or that tough hoboe feller who calls himself Bat Harker. They never talk a heap.
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