um and half of mine is yours, and a half of yours is mine."

[Illustration: Looking down on the Sand Bank]

By this time we had come to a pretty high bank about a hundred yards
from the mill. We heard voices and looked down on the sand bank, and
there were about fifty men sittin' or standin' around. And there was my
pa. So I says, "I can't go down there, Mitch, my pa will whip me or
drive me away. I know for certain he wouldn't want me to see this."
"Well," says Mitch, "what's the difference? We're not more'n 75 feet
away from 'em and can see everything and hear everything if there's
anything to hear. So let's just lie down here in the grass and take it
easy, and look down on 'em and watch it." So we did. There seemed to be
some arrangin' of things. My pa seemed to be standin' clost to Ruddy
Hedgpeth and talkin' to him and kind of advisin' him or takin' care of
him. And George Montgomery was doin' the same for Jack Plunkett. Mitch
says, "They're the seconds."

"What's that?" says I.

"Why," says Mitch, "seconds see that everything is fair, and no
foolin'."

We could hear most everything they said, and they were talkin' about
whether Jack Plunkett could choke Ruddy Hedgpeth if he got him. My pa
said not; and Jack Plunkett said it was a fight to see who could whip
the other, and if he got Ruddy so he could lay his hands on him and
choke him until he gave up, that was fair and he insisted on it. Then
Ruddy and my pa stepped to one side and talked secret; and then my pa
said out loud that it was all right, and chokin' would not be barred;
but of course what one could do, the other could. Jack Plunkett laughed
at this an awful mockin' laugh, because he was the most terrible choker
in the county and felt he could get the best of anybody in a chokin'
match.

Then Jack and Ruddy began to undress, that is, they took off everything
but their pants. Jack had a beard and a big square face, and a chest as
thick as a horse and arms as big as a man's legs. And Ruddy was about as
big only a little shorter, but he wore no beard, but his face and chest
looked clean and slick and he was known to be an awful hard hitter. Then
they got out on a flat place, level and hard sand, and began, my pa and
George Montgomery takin' care of them and about fifty others watchin' as
I said.

They stood and eyed each other and walked around and watched for a
chance. Pretty soon Ruddy hit Jack on the chin and sent his head back
and Jack rushed on