1847. Robb, Squatter Life, p. 73. It’s my opinion, these squirtish
kind a fellars ain’t perticular hard-baked.
Hard-bargain (or Case), subs. (common).—1. A lazy fellow; a bad-egg
(q.v.); a skulker. One of the Queen’s Hard-bargains = a bad soldier.
1848. Ruxton, Life in the Far West, p. 71. La Bonté had lost all
traces of civilised humanity, and might justly claim to be
considered as hard a case as any of the mountaineers then present.
1888. Lynch, Mountain Mystery, ch. xliii. A fellow who comes and
goes between here and Rockville, generally considered a hard case,
and believed to be more outlaw than miner.