n.

"Reckon you folks don't know I got the cirkit-rider to come over hyeh,
do ye?" he went on. "Ef he can't preach! Well, I'd tell a man! He kin
jus' draw the heart out'n a holler log! He 'convicted' me fust night,
over thar in Breathitt. He come up thar, ye know, to stop the feud, he
said; 'n' thar was laughin' from one eendo' Breathitt to t'other; but
thar was the whoppinest crowd thar I ever see when he did come. The
meetin'-house wasn't big enough to hold 'em, so he goes out on the
aidge o' town, n' climbs on to a stump. He hed a woman with him from the
settlemints--she's a-waitin' at Hazlan fer him now-'n' she had a cur'us
little box, 'n' he put her 'n' the box on a big rock, 'n' started in a
callin' 'em his bretherin' 'n' sisteren, 'n' folks seed mighty soon
thet he meant it, too. He's always mighty easylike, tell he gits to the
blood-penalty."

At the word, Crump's listeners paid sudden heed. Old Gabe's knife
stopped short in the heart of the stick he was whittling; the boy looked
sharply up from the running meal into Crump's face and sat still.

Well, he jes prayed to the Almighty as though he was a-talkin' to him
face to face, 'n' then the woman put her hands on that box, 'n' the
sweetes' sound anybody thar ever heerd come outen it. Then she got to
singin'. Hit wusn't nuthin' anybody thar'd ever heerd; but some o' the
women folks was a snifflin' 'fore she got through. He pitched right into
the feud, as he calls hit, 'n' the sin o' sheddin' human blood, I tell
ye; 'n' 'twixt him and the soldiers I reckon thar won't be no more
fightin' in Breathitt. He says, 'n' he always says it mighty loud
--Crump raised his own voice--"thet the man as kills his feller-critter
hev some day got ter give up his own blood, sartin 'n' shore."

It was old Gabe's pet theory, and he was nodding approval. The boy's
parted lips shook with a spasm of fear, and were as quickly shut tight
with suspicion. Steve raised his head as though he too had heard the
voice, and looked stupidly about him.

"I tol' him," Crump went on, "thet things was already a-gettin' kind o'
frolicsome round hyeh agin; thet the Marcums 'n' Braytons was a-takin'
up the ole war, 'n' would be a-plunkin' one 'nother every time they got
together, 'n' a-gittin' the whole country in fear 'n' tremblin'--now
thet Steve Marcum had come back."

Steve began to scowl and a vixenish smile hovered at Isom's lips.

"He knows mighty well--fer I tol' him--thet thar hain't a wu