"'It's a good sign, though,' says Cherokee Hall, 'that straight flush is.Which it shows Rainbow strikes a streak of luck; an' mebby it lasts long enough to get him by the gates above all right.That's all I asks when my time comes; that I dies when I'm commencin' a run of luck.'
"Oh! about this Slim Jim tenderfoot an' his tragedy! Do you know Iplumb overlooks him.I gets trailed off that a-way after pore old Rainbow Sam, an' Slim Jim escapes my mem'ry complete.
"Which the story of this gent, even the little we-alls knows, is a heap onusual.No one, onless he's the postmaster, ever does hear his name.He sorter ha'nts about Red Dog an' Wolfville indiscriminate for mighty nigh a year; an' they calls him 'Slim Jim' with us, an'
'The Tenderfoot' in Red Dog; but, as I says, what's his real name never does poke up its head.
"Whatever brings this yere Slim Jim into the cow country is too boggy a crossin' for me.Thar ain't a thing he can do or learn to.
We-alls has him on one round-up, an' it's cl'ar from the jump he ain't meant by Providence for the cattle business.The meekest bronco in the bunch bucks him off; an' actooally he's that timid he's plumb afraid of ponies an' cattle both.
"We-alls fixes Slim Jim's saddle with buckin'-straps; an' even fastens a roll of blankets across the saddle-horn; but it ain't enough.Nothin' bar tyin' Slim Jim into the saddle, like the hoss-back Injuns does to papooses, could save him.
"An' aside from nacheral awk'ardness an' a light an' fitful seat in a saddle, it looks like this Slim Jim has baleful effects on a bronco.To show you: One mornin' we ropes up for him a pony which has renown for its low sperits.It acts, this yere pony does, like it's suffered some disapp'intment which blights it an' breaks its heart; an' no amount of tightenin' of the back cinch; not even spurrin' of it in the shoulder an' neck like playful people who's out for a circus does, is ever known to evolve a buck-jump outen him, he's that sad.Which this is so well known, the pony's name is 'Remorse.'
"As I says, merely to show the malignant spell this yere Slim Jim casts over a bronco, we-alls throws him onto this Remorse pony one mornin'.
"'Which if you can't get along with that cayouse,' remarks Jack Moore at the time, 'I reckons it's foreordained you-all has to go afoot.'
"An' that's how it turns out.No sooner is Slim Jim in the saddle than that Remorse pony arches his back like a hoop, sticks his nose between his knees, an' gives way to sech a fit of real old worm-fence buckin' as lands Slim Jim on his sombrero, an' makes expert ponies simply stand an' admire.
"That's the last round-up Slim Jim attempts; workin' cattle he says himse'f is too deep a game for him, an' he never does try no more.
So he hangs about Wolfville an' Red Dog alternate, turnin' little jim-crow tricks for the express company, or he'pin' over to the stage company's corrals, an' sorter manages to live.
"Now an' then some party who's busy drinkin', an' tharfore hasn't time for faro, an' yet is desirous the same be played, stakes Slim Jim ag'inst the game; an' it happens at times he makes a small pick-up that a-way.But his means of livelihood is shorely what you-alls would call precar'ous.
"An' yet, as I sends my mind back over the trail, I never knows of nothin' bad this yere Slim Jim does.You needn't go inferrin' none, from his havin' a terror of steers an' broncos that a-way, that he's timid plumb through.Thar's reason to deem him game when he's up ag'inst mere man.
"Once, so they tells the story, Curly Bill rounds up this Slim Jim in a Red Dog hurdy-gurdy an' concloods to have some entertainment with him.
"'Dance, you shorthorn!' says this yere Curly Bill, yankin' out his six-shooter an' p'intin' it mighty sudden at Slim Jim's foot;'shuffle somethin' right peart now, or you-all emerges shy a toe.'
"Does this Slim Jim dance? Never cavorts a step.At the first move he swarms all over this Curly Bill like a wild-cat, makes him drop his gun, an' sends him out of the hurdy-gurdy on a canter.That's straight; that's the painful fact in the case of Curly Bill, who makes overgay with the wrong gent.
"Later, mebby an hour, so the party says who relates it to me, Curly Bill sends back word into the hurdy-gurdy, tellin' the barkeep, if his credit's good after sech vicissitoodes, to treat the house.He allows the drinks is on him, an' that a committee can find him settin' on the post office steps sorter goin' over himse'f for fractures, if it's held necessary for him to be present when the drinks is took.
"Which of course any gent's credit is good at the bar that a-way;an' so a small delegation of three ropes up this yere Curly Bill an'
brings him back to the hurdy-gurdy, where he gets his gun ag'in, an'
Slim Jim an' him makes up.
"'Which I renounces all idee of ever seein' you dance some,' says Curly Bill, when he an' Jim shakes; 'an' I yereby marks your moccasins plumb off my list of targets.'
"Everybody's pleased at this; an' the barkeep is delighted speshul, as one of them reeconciliations that a-way is mighty condoosive to the sale of nose-paint.I'm yere to remark, if thar ain't no more reeconciliations on earth, an' everybody stands pat on them hatreds an' enmities of his, whiskey-drinkin' falls off half.
"I only su'gest this turn-up with Curly Bill to 'lustrate that it's about as I says, an' that while Slim Jim's reluctant an' hesitatin'
in the presence of wild steers, an' can't adhere to a pony much, this yere girlishness don't extend to men none; which last he faces prompt an' willin' as a lion.
"Thar's times when I shorely ponders the case of this Slim Jim a mighty sight, 'cause he keeps strikin' me as a good gent gone bad, an' as bein' the right gent in the wrong place.
"'This pore maverick is plumb Eastern, that's all,' says Enright one day, while he's discussin' of this Slim Jim.'He ain't to blame, but he ain't never goin' to do, none whatever, out yere.He can't no more get used to Arizona than one of the Disciples, an' he might camp 'round for years.'
