as at the meridian, and that's why they seed Duff hit
this feller with a sling-shot; and after Linkern had got it all clear by
cross questionin' these witnesses, then he pulled out a almanac, and
says to the judge and the jury, 'Look here.' They looked and saw that
the moon warn't at the meridian, but was a settin' (swear word); and so
they couldn't have seed Duff hit him with a slung-shot. And Linkern put
a feller on the stand and axed him 'Did you ever make a slung-shot?'
'Yes,' says he. 'Tell me how,' says Linkern. 'Wal,' says he, 'I took a
egg shell and sunk one half of it in the sand; then I melted some zinc
and lead and poured it into the egg shell, and made two of these; then I
took a old boot and cut out some leather and sewed the leather around
these two halves with squirrel's hide; then I made a loop for the wrist
of squirrel's hide'; and then Linkern says, 'Look at this.' He handed a
slung-shot to the feller; and says, 'Take your knife and rip it open.'
So he did, and there fell out the two halves molded in this here egg
shell, and so the slung-shot belonged to this feller and didn't belong
to Duff at all. And they had found it thar where the fight was; but
every one fit that night (swear word). You see they were a-holdin' a
camp meetin', and about a mile off thar was a bar where they sold
drinks, and they'd go and get religion a little (swear word), and then
go and get some drinks, and so on back and forth, and so they fit. And
this here feller that was killed and Duff fit here onct right in
Oakford, because he pulled Duff off'n a barl where he was sleepin', and
Duff got up and whooped him."

By this time Vangy came in. And Mitch was in the best of spirits. I
never heard him laugh so much.

Vangy sat down to the organ, and John tuned up his fiddle, and they
started. Aunt Caroline came in then and sot down and began to knit, but
didn't say nothin'. John just drew a few times with his bow and then he
said: "This here is called 'Pete McCue's Straw Stack,' named after old
Peter McCue who lived down by Tar Creek. They had a dance thar and the
fellers hitched their horses clost to a straw stack in the lot and when
they came out the horses had et all the straw stack up. So they had been
a playin' this here tune and after that they called it 'Pete McCue's
Straw Stack.'"

Then John played it, tappin' his foot, and Vangy just made the organ
talk. She was as thin as a killdeer, and looked consumptive, but she
knew h