He says they never touched a can all the while he had them.

He says devastated Patmos wished they would, and leave the two-dollar lace curtains alone, and clotheslines and water barrels and baggage.

He says many a party drove off with chewed bedding rolls and didn't know it, and that he didn't tell them, either.
You're thinking about Juan, I know.

Well, Casey thought of Juan the first day, and took the trouble to hunt him up and hire him to herd the goats.
But Juan developed a bad case of sleeping sickness, Casey says, which unfortunately was not contagious to goats.

He swears that he never saw one of those goats lying down, though he had seen pictures of goats lying down and had a vague idea that they chewed their cuds.