“Well, there was a feller here once by the name of Jim Smiley in the winter of ’49, or may be it was the spring of ’50—­I don’t recollect exactly, somehow, though what makes me think it was one or the other is because I remember the big flume warn’t finished when he first come to the camp.  But any way, he was the curiousest man about, always betting on anything that turned up you ever see, if he could get any body to bet on the other side; and if he couldn’t he’d change sides.  Any way that suited the other side would suit him—­any way just so’s he got a bet he was satisfied.  But still he was lucky, uncommon lucky; he most always came out winner.  He was always ready and laying for a chance.  There couldn’t be no solit’ry thing mentioned but that feller’d offer to bet on it and take any side you please, as I was just telling you.  If there was a horse-race you’d find him flush or you’d find him busted at the end of it.  If there was a dog-fight, he’d bet on it; if there was a cat-fight, he’d bet on it; if there was a chicken-fight, he’d bet on it.  Why, if there was two birds setting on a fence, he would bet you which one would fly first.  Or if there was a camp-meeting, he would be there reg’lar to bet on Parson Walker, which he judged to be the best exhorter about here, and so he was, too, and a good man.  If he even see a straddle-bug start to go anywheres he would bet you how long it would take him to get to—­to wherever he was going to; and if you took him up he would follow that straddle-bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road.  Lots of the boys here has seen that Smiley, and can tell you about him.  Why, it never made no difference to him, he’d bet any thing—­the dangdest feller.  Parson Walker’s wife laid very sick once for a good while, and it seemed as if they warn’t going to save her; but one morning he come in and Smiley up and asked him how she was, and he said she was consid’able better—­thank the Lord for his inf’nit mercy!—­and coming on so smart that, with the blessing of Providence, she’d get well yet; and Smiley, before he thought, says, ‘Well, I’ll resk two-and-a-half she don’t, any way.’”

* * * * * * * *

“Well, this yer Smiley had rat-terriers, and chicken-cocks, and tom-cats, and all them kind of things till you couldn’t rest, and you couldn’t fetch nothing for him to bet on but he’d match you.  He ketched a frog one day and look him home, and said he cal’lated to educate him, and so he never done nothing for three months but set in his back-yard and learn that frog to jump.  And you bet you he did learn him, too.  He’d give him a little punch behind, and the next minute you’d see that frog whirling in the air like a doughnut—­see him turn one summerset, or may be a couple, if he got a good start, and come down flat-footed and all right, like a cat.  He got him up so in the matter of ketching flies,