If Mr. Picardy can show me a deed
from Gawd Almighty, signed, sealed, and delivered along about the time
Moses got hisn fer the Land uh Canyan, or if he can show a paper from
Uncle Sam, sayin' this place belongs to him, I'll throw off these
logs, h'ist the box back on the wagon and look further; but I ain't
goin' to move on the say-so uh no furrin' king, which I don't believe
in nohow."
He took the pipe from his mouth, and with it pointed to a spot twenty
feet away, so that they all looked towards the place.
"Right thar," he stated slowly, "is whar I'm goin' to build my cabin,
fer me and Mary. And right over thar I'm goin' to plow me up a truck
patch. I'm a peaceable man, mister. I don't aim to have no fussin'
with my neighbors. But you tell Mr. Picardy that thar'll be loopholes
cut on all four sides uh that thar cabin, and Jemimy and the twins'll
be ready to argy with anybody that comes moochin' around unfriendly.
I'm the peaceablest man you ever seen, but when I make up my mind to
a thing, I'm firm! Pur-ty tol'able firm!" he added with complacent
emphasis.
He waited expectantly while Dade put a revised version of this speech
into Spanish, and placidly smoked his little black pipe while the don
made answer.
"Already I find that I have done well to choose an Americano for my
majordomo," Don Andres observed, a smile in his eyes. "With a few more
such as this great hombre, who is firm and peaceful together, I should
find my days full of trouble with a hot-blooded Manuel to deal with
them.
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