“‘Which if all my friends,’ says the Major, no doubt alloodin’ to them witnesses ag’in him when he’s cashiered, ’couldn’t have talked no more than Bowlaigs, I’d been happy yet.’

“The Major’s got a diminyootive wickeyup out to the r’ar of the corral, an’ him an’ Bowlaigs resides tharin.  This habitat of the Major an’ Bowlaigs ain’t much bigger than a seegyar box; it’s only eight foot by ten, is made of barn-boards an’ has a canvas roof.  That’s the kind of ranch Bowlaigs an’ the Major calls ‘home’; the latter spreadin’ his blankets on one side while Bowlaigs sleeps on t’other on the board floor, needin’ no blankets, havin’ advantage over the Major seein’ he’s got fur.

“The dispoote between Bowlaigs an’ the Major which results in both of ‘em cashin’ in, gets started erroneous.  The Major—­who’s sometimes too indolent an’ sometimes too drunk to make the play himse’f—­instructs Bowlaig how to go over to the Red Light an’ fetch a bottle of rum.  The Major would chuck a silver dollar in a little basket, an’ Bowlaigs would take it in his mouth same as you-all has seen dogs, an’ report with the layout to Black Jack.  That gent would make the shift, bottle for dollar, an’ Bowlaigs would reepair back ag’in to the Major, when they’d both tank up ecstatic.

“One mornin’ after Bowlaigs an’ the Major’s been campin’ together about four months, they wakes up mighty jaded.  They’ve had a onusual spree the evenin’ prior an’ they feels like a couple of sore-head dogs.  The Major who needs a drink to line up for the day, gropes about in his blankets, gets a dollar, pitches it into the basket an’ requests Bowlaigs to caper over for the Willow Run.  Bowlaigs is nothin’ loth; but as he’s about to pick up the basket, he observes that the dollar has done bounced out an’ fell through a crack in the floor.  Bowlaigs sees it through the same crack where it’s layin’ shinin’ onder the house.

“Now this yere Bowlaigs is a mighty sagacious b’ar, also froogal, an’ so he goes wallowin’ forth plenty prompt to recover the dollar.  The Major, who’s ignorant of what’s happened, still lays thar groanin’ in his blankets, feelin’ like a loser an’ nursin’ his remorse.

“The first p’inter the Major gets of a new deal in his destinies is a grand crash as the entire teepee upheaves an’ goes over, kerwallop! on its side, hurlin’ the Major out through the canvas.  It’s the thoughtless Bowlaigs does it.

“When Bowlaigs gets outside, he finds he can’t crawl onder the teepee none, seein’ it’s settin’ too clost to the ground; an’ tharupon, bein’ a one-ideed b’ar, he sort o’ runs his right arm in beneath that edifice an’ up-ends the entire shebang, same as his old mother would a log when she’s grub-huntin’ in the hills.  Bowlaigs is pickin’ up the dollar when the Major comes swarmin’ ’round the ruins of his outfit, a bowie in his hand, an’ him fairly locoed with rage.

“Shore, thar’s a fight, an’ the Major gets the knife plumb to Bowlaigs’s honest heart with the first motion.  But Bowlaigs quits game; he turns with a warwhoop an’ confers on the Major a swat that would have broke the back of a bronco; an’ then he dies with his teeth in the Major’s neck.