The doctor, he says:
"I haven't had such rotten luck since I played
the bloodhound in a Tom Show--Were you ever
an 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' artist, Looey?--and a
justice of the peace over in Iowa fined me five
dollars for being on the street without a muzzle.
Said it was a city ordinance. Talk about the
gentle Rube being an easy mark! If these country
towns don't get the wandering minstrel's money
one way they will another!"
"It's your own fault," says Looey, kind o' sour.
"I can't see it," says Doctor Kirby. "How did
I know that all these apple-knockers had been filled
up with Sykes's Magic Remedy only two weeks
ago? I may have been a spiritualistic medium in
my time now and then," he says, "and a mind
reader, too, but I'm no prophet."
"I ain't talking about the business, Doc, and you
know it," says Looey. "We'd be all right and have
our horses and wagon now if you'd only stuck to
business and not got us into that poker game.
Talk about suckers! Doc, for a man that has
skinned as many of 'em as you have, you're the
worst sucker yourself I ever saw."
The doctor, he cusses the poker game and country
towns and medicine shows and the hull creation
and says he is so disgusted with life he guesses he'll
go and be a preacher or a bearded lady in a side-
show.
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