Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 2, 2025
Don't you dare speak to one o' them boys, or ever to me agin. If you do I'll mash you. Git out." Si and Shorty's dismay when they returned and found their squad entirely disappeared was overwhelming. They stood and gazed at one another for a minute in speechless alarm and wonderment. "Great goodness," gasped Si at length, "they can't have gone far. They must be somewhere around."
"Or are you just simple loco?" "No, I'm all right. Perhaps a fellow has to stop eating in order to see things. At any rate, I have seen things I never dreamed were in the world. I know what a woman is, now." Shorty's mouth opened, and about the lips and in the light of the eyes was the whimsical advertisement of the sneer forthcoming. "Don't, please," Smoke said gently. "You don't know. I do."
"Life ain't no punkins without whiskey an' sweetenin'," was Shorty's greeting, as he pulled lumps of ice from his thawing moustache and flung them rattling on the floor. "An' I sure just got eighteen pounds of that same sweetenin'. The geezer only charged three dollars a pound for it. What luck did you have?" "I, too, have not been idle," Smoke answered with pride. "I bought fifty pounds of flour.
"That bull was like a cat gettin' to his feet, and he sights Shorty tarin' and lights out after him. There they went lickety-split. That bull was puffin' on the seat of Shorty's trowsers and tossin' his horns and jest missin' Shorty by inches; and Shorty had his mouth so wide open hollerin' that you could have throwed a side of beef down his throat; and his eyes was buggin' out.
The speed and manner in which she negotiated the precarious footing called out Shorty's unqualified approval. "Look at her!" he cried. "She's the real goods an' the red meat. Look at them moccasins swing along. No high-heels there. She uses the legs God gave her. She's the right squaw for any bear-hunter." She flashed back a smile of acknowledgment that included Smoke.
"If they were only painted yaller and had a label on them," said Si, "they could be issued for Cincinnati canvas covered hams." Shorty's retort was checked by hearing the bugle sound the officers' call. The Colonel announced to them that owing to the threatening look of the skies the parade and inspection would take place in an hour.
Breck rummaged in his boat and produced a demijohn of whiskey. Shorty's hand half went out to it and stopped abruptly. He shook his head. "There's that blamed White Horse right below, an' they say it's worse than the Box. I reckon I don't dast tackle any lightning." Several miles below they ran in to the bank, and all four walked down to look at the bad water.
He was sitting on a piece of ice beside the trail. "Hop along, sister Mary," Shorty gaily greeted him. "Keep movin'. If you sit there you'll freeze stiff." The man made no response, and they stopped to investigate. "Stiff as a poker," was Shorty's verdict. "If you tumbled him over he'd break."
"They'uns 's plum sick o' doggin' hit for Abe Lincoln an' quit." "Let 'em gin up thar guns, then," said the foremost man, who had but one eye, reaching for Shorty's musket. "I'll take this one. I've been longin' for a good Yankee gun for a plum month to reach them Yankee pickets on Duck River."
Each of the boys had taken the first opportunity, after getting enough to eat, a shelter prepared, and his clothes in shape and a tolerable rest, to write a long letter to the object of his affections. Shorty's letter was not long on paper, but in the time it took him to write it.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking