Oh, You Tex!

"Well, you old son of a mule-skinner, what's the matter with that? You have, ain't you?" demanded the amazed Wilkins.

"Mebbe I have, but he can't tell me so."

That was all the satisfaction the public ever got. It did a good deal of guessing, however, and none of it came near the truth.

[Footnote 5: To "take the hides off'n 'em" was the expressive phraseology in which the buffalo-hunter described his business.]