"The older I git, the more I'm bound to consider that most things
is inside, anyhow, and what's outside don't count for much.
"So it stands to reason when ye play the game for what's inside,
ye win over all the outside players. When ye done kindness to
Hoag, ye mightn't a meant it, but ye was bracin' up the goodness
in yerself, or bankin' it up somewher' on the trail ahead, where
it was needed. And he was simply chawin' his own leg off, when
he done ye dirt. I ain't much o' a prattlin' Christian, but I
reckon as a cold-blooded, business proposition it pays to lend
the neighbour a hand; not that I go much on gratitude. It's
scarcer'n snowballs in hell -- which ain't the point; but I take
notice there ain't any man'll hate ye more'n the feller that
knows he's acted mean to ye. An' there ain't any feller more
ready to fight yer battles than the chap that by some dum
accident has hed the luck to help ye, even if he only done it to
spite some one else -- which 'minds me o' McCarthy's bull pup
that saved the drowning kittens by mistake, and ever after was a
fightin' cat protector, whereby he lost the chief joy o' his
life, which had been cat-killin'.
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