The circle banner., 1923-12-28
us yarn, Stub You're
as full of 'em as coyotes
= full of fees. Tell us that

/ d
u full of flees. Tell us thai
yarn We told Cy Buck on the round
up last fall, bout the feller that got
even with your outfit over on the
Sun river"
Stub bit off capacious corner
of a plug of Horseshoe, rolled II
from cheek to cheek moment, spat
viciously at the camp fire and be-
gan;
"Back bout 20 years ago, fore
the sheep had killed out the bunch
grass and left nothin' but blister
bellied rattlesnakes and cactus
where it used to grow and put
buck in cayuse, / was punchin'
cows for an outfit on Sun river.
| reckon that we were about the
only outfit in that section worth
talkin' about, and COW hands were
none too plenty them times.
"The boys ridin' for the outfit
were as husky lot as ever strad-
died cayuse, and were up to most
any kind of hell, whether it crack
ed leg or blacked an eye.
"a scar was only an earmark or
a badge of membership in the
'Hashknife,' and most every one
of us had a pet of some kind that
wasn't beauty spot nohow.
Look at my nose," and he turned
so that the light of the fire might
better reveal its crooked outlines.
"Smokey" Was Bad One
"They were a tough lot, an
among other things belongin' to
'em was string of as mean a
bunch of buzzard heads as ever
looked through a glass eye. They
ranged from mean to damned
mean and Old Smokey was in the
A class of them / mentioned last.
Boys, that hoss was so internally
mean that he wouldn't get fat. He
was so ornery that magpie
wouldn't pick bug off'n him, al
though I sometimes thought they
envied him, cause they'd sit round
on the willers and jabber among
'emselves like they wished they was
as mean as that old crowbait. That
hoss had an eye like the bottom OF
a beer bottle in a prospect hole.
"Now, besides Old Smoky, we
had another ornery cuss in the
Hash-knife. The only thing in
camp that could hit the gait of this
here skate was the foreman. His
name was 'Red'-'Red' somethin,'
an he was sure a half brother to
Smoky, but what the owners of the
outfit kept Red fer is one of them
things that's too deep fer me, yes
sir. It's what | heard a lawyer call
AN onexplainable circumstance.
Seems to bout fit the case as far
as Red is concerned.
He Was the Goat
cold Smoky was the goat of the
and every new man
was iobbed into ridin' him, sooner
or later, only to be piled up, to the
Joy of the bunch. Sometimes Old
would get in a kick after
he dumped his man and then the
feller was sure to be branded for all
time. He was the limit and | new
er see a man crawl him a second
time. Once was plenty. 1t had
been raised to the Sublime Order
Of 'Hash-knife Punchers, when a |
candidate appeared.
"I remember it as though twas
Yesterday. We were all sittin'
around the corral, chewin' the rag
an smokin', when up the trail,
bout a, hundred yards away, l see
/ hoss and rider acomin'. We did
1T have long to speculate as to
who he was, before ne was a-talKln |
o Red and pretty soon the feller /
walked toward the pasture leadin'
lis hoss by the bride, where he
urned him loose, put up the bars,
lung his saddle on the fence and
anne over to the corral. Of course,
Red had hired him and the boys
we're a-wonderin' where he hailed
rom. But some way, before he
lad properly squared himself round
We marked him for a snap fer
smoky and dog-gon me if I wasn't
orry fer the kid, for that's all he
kid with light yeller
lair and a pair of them baby blue
yes.
The Boys Outfit
"Wall, it was the same old gag.
III the ridin' stock belongin' to the
anch was gentle as kittens to hear