"'An' speshul, Colonel,' I goes on, for I shore aims to do my dooty
by him, 'don't lay nothin' 'round loose where this yere Jerry mule
can grab it off. I'm the last freighter on the Plains to go
slanderin' an' detractin' of a pore he'pless mule onless it's
straight; but if you-all takes to leavin' keepsakes an' mementoes
layin' about casooal an' careless that a-way, Jerry'll eat 'em; an'
the first you saveys your keepsakes is within Jerry's interior, an'
thar you be.
"'The fact is, stranger, this Jerry mule's a thief,' I says. 'If
he's a human, Jerry would be lynched. But otherwise he's a sincere,
earnest mule; an up hill or at a quicksand crossin' Jerry goes into
his collar like a lion; so I forgives him bein' a thief an' allows
it's a peccadillo."
"'Well, you bet!' says this tenderfoot Colonel, 'this yere Jerry
better not come no peccadillos on me.'
"'If you-all maintains about twenty feet,' I replies, 'between
Jerry's hind-Hocks an' you; an' if you keeps your bric-a-brac in
your war-bags, you an' Jerry'll get along like lambs. Now, I warns
you, an' that's got to do. If Jerry an' you gets tangled up
yereafter you-all ain't goin' to harbor no revenges ag'in him, nor
make no ranikaboo plays to get even.
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