Assisted by Abe he started to make an inventory of the contents.

A portly jug of apple jack was kept at hand, that there might not be any suffering from undue thirst during the course of the operation, which, as Kent providently remarked, was liable to make a man as dry as an Arizona plain.
The danger of such aridity seemed to grow more imminent continually, judged by the frequency of their application to the jug.

It soon became more urgent than the completion of the inventory.

Frequent visits of loyal Kentuckians with other jugs and bottles, to drink to the renewed supremacy of the Banner of Beauty and Glory, did not diminish Kent's and Abe's apprehensions of ultimate thirst.

Their clay seemed like some other kinds, which have their absorptive powers strengthened by the more they take up.