The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1890-02-05
TWO LESSONS.
BY S. d. BARNES.

BY S. d. BARNES.
'It won't do to bet on another mans
game, " remarked one of the group gath
cred around the fire in Dutch Johns
grocery. 81 learned that years ago, and
the fellow that cut my eye-teeth for me,
was the same Alb Skinner who was elect
ed to the last Legislature from Rawhide
County"
We sat and smoked in silence. We
were all old acquaintances of the speaker,
and knew that there was story forth
coming, and it would be related without
any urging from us.
81 met Alb first the winter l came
down from the North" continued the
narrator, after slight pause. ''We were
both young fellows, then-I was visiting
at Uncle Dick Scofield's ranch, and Alb
was one of the cowboys-and we two
were together a good deal, hunting and
knocking around, and all our spare time
we put in playing cards and shaking dice.
''Ab was fair player, but / was fresh
from Chicago, and up to all the lodges
of professional; and gradually Ipocketed
all the loose change that he could rake
and scrape; until finally, got him down
to bedrock, and had to hold up until Uncle
Dick paid him his next quarters salary,
Then fully intended to wade in and
gobble the entire hundred and fifty, and
pull back for civilization.
''It was pretty scheme, but somehow
it failed to work. Alb Skinner was do
ing little scheming at the same time,
and his brain was clearer than mine.
ga week before payday, he went
over to the circle bar ranch, and when
he came back ] saw that he had been
drinking, and was as happy as wolf IN
sheep-pen; but he simmered down
again, and so things rocked on for few
days longer
'We had just moved our cattle in
from the upper range and throwed em
in ON little valley west of the shanty,
where not a blade of grass had been
nipped all summer long, and there they
were feeding-foIr thousand head Of
'em; and as wild lot as ever waved a
horn IN stampede. One day, about
noon, as Uncle Dick was coming in from
town, the whole herd lit out after him,
crippled his horse, and nearly scared the
old man to death.
" Them cattle are terrors, he said, as
he slid off his horse, and spread himself
out on the veranda, when Alb and were
talking to the Deputy Sheriff, who was
down looking up some stolen stock-T
thought cl' Dick was gone coon, sure.
They didn't like your looks said
Alb with a laugh. you couldn't git 'em
to run a genuine cowboy. I'll bet could
walk clean across to that knot yander,
and he indicated little hill entirely be-
yond the herd; walk over, understand,
afoot, and alone, and never get scratch
from horn OF hoof.'
I" i would like to bet you something
on that, said I and had hardly spoken
the words before Alb drew buckskin
bag from his pocket, and shook outa pile
of silver and gold.
" The is fifty dollars, said hes 'If
you want to make some money easy here's
your chance. The Sheriff will hold the
stakes
"Fifty dollars was just the size of my
pile, and Alb knew it. l was positive
that if Skinner made break out in that
prairie, one of them old Spanish steers
would run him down in three minutes !;
but still hesitated.
Stick him, Charley said Uncle
Dick; the dad-blamed fool will be
killed. but that amt your lookout. If
you don't bet, Iwillp
81 went over and handed Sheriff Smith
the money, and as he put it in his hat
along with Abs fifty, the old man Clipped
in again.
'''Bein' as you're throwin' away your
money, Alb, why not give me some of itl
Thars that hundred and fifty l was goin'
to pay you to-night-suppose put it in
the hat with as much more, an if you
get through to the knot, Smith kin ride
over an give you the hull wad.'
Good enuff, replied Alb, and in
three minutes the Sheriff's old sombrero
was looking like a second edition of the
national treasury.
Les understand this thing, said
Smith. 'Ab lights out afoot, right now,
and goes straight to the knot, and if he
gifts thar the dust is his; is that rightg
"'An' if he gifts the hull side of his
head horned of, or anything like that
happens tew him, he don't sit it, said
uncle. Shake hands, Alb, before you go.
You've bin mighty good hand with the
cattle, but I'll be pow'rful glad to assist
at your funeral
" Give me good one, old man,
grinned Alb, as he jumped of the YER
anda and started for the knot
"'Come back, said Uncle Dick. If
you'll forfeit one-third, and own you're a
fool, wen let you Of
'But Alb went ahead as though he had
never heard him.
"Ihe wind was blowing straight to
the herd, and though the nearest steer