"Work being slack at present at Devil's Ford, I reck'ned I'd take a pasear down to 'Frisco, and dip into the vortex o' fash'nable society and out again." He lightly waved a new handkerchief to illustrate his swallow-like intrusion.

"This yer minglin' with the bo-tong is apt to be wearisome, ez you and me knows, unless combined with experience and judgment.

So when them boys up there allows that there's a little too much fash'nable society and San Francisco capital and high-falutin' about the future goin' on fer square surface mining, I sez, 'Look yere, gentlemen,' sez I, 'you don't see the pint.

The pint is to get the pop'lar eye fixed, so to speak, on Devil's Ford.

When a fash'nable star rises above the 'Frisco horizon--like Miss Carr--and, so to speak, dazzles the gineral eye, people want to know who she is.