snappin'-turtle

Updated: June 5, 2025

As I passed I heard his gentle voice silently achieving some narrative to an attentive audience, and just as I came by the open window where he sat on his bed in shirt and drawers, his back to me, I heard his concluding words, "And the hat on his haid was the one mark showed yu' he weren't a snappin'-turtle." The anecdote met with instantaneous success, and I hurried away into the dark.

Owen Wister - The Virginian, a Horseman of the Plains