Part 23 (1/2)
Captain Adams loped away, as if to town. Others went in. While I was idle at last and rather enjoying the hot sun as I sat resting upon a convenient wagon-tongue Daniel hulked to me, still snapping his ox goad.
”Haowdy?” he addressed again; and surveyed, eying every detail of my clothing.
”Howdy?” said I.
”Yu know me?”
”Your name is Daniel, isn't it?”
”No, 'tain't. It's Bonnie Bravo on the trail.”
”All right, sir,” said I. ”Whichever you prefer.”
”I 'laow we pull out this arternoon,” he volunteered farther.
”I'm agreeable,” I responded. ”The sooner the better, where I'm concerned.”
”I 'laow yu (and he p.r.o.nounced it, nasally, yee-ou) been seein' the elephant in Benton an' it skinned yu.”
”I saw all of Benton I wish to see,” I granted. ”You've been there?”
”I won four bits, an' then yu bet I quit,” he greedily proclaimed. ”I was too smart for 'em. I 'laow yu're a greenie, ain't yu?”
”In some ways I am, in some ways I'm not.”
”I 'laow yu aim to go through with this train to Salt Lake, do yu?”
”That's the engagement I've made with Mr. Jenks.”
”Don't feel too smart, yoreself, in them new clothes?”
”No. They're all I have. They won't be new long.”
”Yu bet they won't. Ain't afeared of peterin' aout on the way, be yu? I 'laow yu're sickly.”
”I'll take my chances,” I smiled, although he was irritating in the extreme.
”It's four hunderd mile, an' twenty mile at a stretch withaout water. Most the water's pizen, too, from hyar to the mountings.”
”I'll have to drink what the rest drink, I suppose.”
”I 'laow the Injuns are like to get us. They're powerful bad in that thar desert. Ain't afeared o' Injuns, be yu?”
”I'll have to take my chances on that, too, won't I?”
”They sculped a whole pa.s.sel o' surveyors, month ago,” he persisted.
”Yu'll sing a different tyune arter yu've been corralled with nothin' to drink.” He viciously snapped his whip, the while inspecting me as if seeking for other joints in my armor. ”Yu aim to stay long in Zion?”
”I haven't planned anything about that.”
”Reckon yu're wise, Mister. We don't think much o' Gentiles, yonder. We don't want 'em, nohaow. They'd all better git aout. The Saints settled that country an' it's ourn.”