Have to hustle lively for every worm you find, don't
you, Chickie? Now me, I'm hustlin' lively for a drink, and I be
domn if it seems nicessary with a whole river of drinkin' stuff
flowin' right under me feet. But the old Wabash ain't runnin
"wine and milk and honey" not by the jug-full. It seems to be
compounded of aquil parts of mud, crude ile, and rain water. If
'twas only runnin' Melwood, be gorry, Chickie, you'd see a
mermaid named Jimmy Malone sittin' on the Kingfisher Stump,
combin' its auburn hair with a breeze, and scoopin' whiskey down
its gullet with its tail fin. No, hold on, Chickie, you wouldn't
either. I'm too flat-chisted for a mermaid, and I'd have no time
to lave off gurglin' for the hair-combin' act, which, Chickie, to
me notion is as issential to a mermaid as the curves. I'd be a
sucker, the biggest sucker in the Gar-hole, Chickie bird. I'd be
an all-day sucker, be gobs; yis, and an all- night sucker, too.
Come to think of it, Chickie, be domn if I'd be a sucker at all.
Look at the mouths of thim! Puckered up with a drawstring! Oh,
Hell on the Wabash, Chickie, think of Jimmy Malone lyin' at the
bottom of a river flowin' with Melwood, and a puckerin'-string
mouth! Wouldn't that break the heart of you? I know what I'd be.
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