Sure enough, there "ain't no such animal" as a completely honest man, as the title story shows. Other stories tell of justice as swift and sure as a mule's kick, of epic brawls and the trials of courtship, of poachers, politicians, and preachers, of hogs and dogs and horse traders, of good neighboring and bad blood, of life and death and youth and age in southeast Texas as it was early in the twentieth century.

In the tradition of Frank Dobie and Fred Gipson, Bill Brett writes with the natural humor and wisdom of the folk themselves. His stories will delight anyone with an interest in folk life or with the inclination to stop and "set a spell" and listen to a good yarn.