use their Christian names, but as they were accustomed to hearing all
the section laborers and every harvester called by a "monicker" or
"name-de-rail", they kept their thoughts to themselves, and Joe, after
listening to these instructions gleefully remarked: "Gee, I wish that
you would give each of us a hobo name the same as you have." After some
discussion they nicknamed Joe, "Dakota Joe" and Jim, "Dakota Jim."

They waited for some time to try to hobo some passing train, but as none
of them stopped or slowed up sufficiently for them to risk swinging onto
it, when the dinner hour drew near, Slippery visited a nearby country
store and soon returned carrying canned foods and other material from
which they could prepare a substantial "Mulligan", which is made by
stewing in a large tin can almost everything edible over a slow fire.
They collected some castaway tin cans and then went to a thicket by the
side of a rippling brook, where they built a roaring fire and when the
embers began to form they placed upon the glowing coals the tin can
containing the "mulligan".

Then all repaired to the side of the brook to scour the cans and make
their own dinner toilets, and here, while the twins washed their faces,
their pals noticed for the first time the singular white hair-growths
upon the backs of their heads, their inheritance from their forefathers.
Joe explained to their wondering companions that these streaks of white
hair were their birth-marks, but Slippery, afraid that these conspicuous
freaks of nature would draw too much attention to their young comrades,
collected some sprigs of sage, and after he had pounded the same to a
pulp between some stones, rubbed it into the white hair upon the boy's
heads, with the result that within a few moments they were dyed to
almost the same shade as the rest of their scalps.