EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 31 © 2020 Book Palace Books * 96 PAGES in FULL edition

94 Thanks to that corporal, who took a likin’ to the kid, they let ’im stay at the fort. Me, I jess went back to my beaver trappin’ ! Meanwhile, back at the fort, the colonel in charge also took a likin’ to the young cub, as he too had lost his chile an’ wife to sum injuns . Soon he gave ’im a proper christian name, like the lord demands, an’ called ’im vance ambrosius Claymore jefferson, which must’ve been the names of all the major’s parents... But the blue-coats called ’im "cheyenne" ’stead, coz he’d been raised by savages! C’mon, carson, you can beat ’im! Wagh! Twenty on smithy! He was taught to be a man... I... Can’t-- burp-- drink anymore... C’mon, sonny, ‘tis only yer third glass of hop juice! ho! Ha! reminds me when my pa taught me how to drink moon- shine! Durin’ the war ’tween the states, cheyenne staid at the fort, but his new pa went to the front! When the war was o’er he came back a diffr’nt man! He had lost a arm at chickamauga, an’ maybe that’s why he took to bendin’ an elbow an’ gamblin’ ! I ’member one day when we was playin’ five-card stud-- he was drinkin’ an’ bettin’ heavily... Gad- darn it, zack, will ya call thet damn card while we’re still alive? I don’ wanna take a’vantage o’ you, major, ’specially since you ain’t got much left to place a bet with... Dontcha pull my leg , zack! I still got me a good arm left with whut to bet! Hip! So you gonna bet me yore arm ? Gad- damn !?! I’m gonna betcha whut I hole most precious inna world!! That bein’ what , major? My son ! An’ that’s how I, zack o’reilly, ended up takin’ care’ of a cub--a human cub that is! Well, ’ere we are once agin, jess like ol’ times’ , huh, sonny? Looky thar yonder-- that is fort ’pache, huh! Not a bad place if’n ya don’ mind sleepin’ with other men! they even got a dog... I’d rather stay with you, uncle zack! Jeezis, now he calls me "uncle"! Why me, lord, why me ?