ir goin' to keep 'em there the Lord knows how long. An'
if the law didn't have some little jestice on its side I'd take an axe
an' go down there an' break down that jail door. But you know that
Jasper _has_ laid himse'f liable an' so has my boy, for knowin' of the
fact--an' so have we all, for that matter. Hah, I was jest a thinkin'
when Spencer had the fight at Pettigrew's mill. Them Sarver boys--ez
triflin' a lot ez ever lived--had him down when I rid up on a hoss. An'
the fust thing they know'd I stobbed one of 'em between the shoulder
blades--an' they thought he never would git well."

"An' they killed Spencer right there," said Margaret.

"That's true enough, but they'd a killed him quicker if I hadn't got
there. Ah, laws a massy, the meanness of this world. An' what did they
try to do with me? Hauled me up befo' cou't, an' thar I went with little
Laz in my arms, an' they tried me fur--'sault, I think them fetch-taked
lawyers called it. An' I says 'salt or sugar, I'm here, an' what air you
goin' to do about it?' They fotch money again' me, an' the lawyers they
jawed an' they palarvered; an' finally I got a chance to speak to that
weak-kneed jedge, I did, an' I says, 'Look here, I've a longer knife,
an' if you tell this jury to convict me, I'll put about a foot an' a
half of it under yo' rusty ribs.' An' you better believe he smiled on
me. Margaret, there ain't no use to set around here an' grieve. In this
here world grief never counted fur nuthin' yit. Stir about an' take care
of yo' stock an' you'll feel better. Miz Barker, I seed you a comin' an'
I know'd you'd make things worse, so I come to off-set you. An' now, if
we air goin' to be good friends, let's talk of somethin' pleasant.
Anybody dead over yo' way, Miz Barker--I mean anybody that ought to be?"

This interested Mrs. Barker, and upon the head she tapped into sloth her
rising resentment. "Nobody dead," she said, with a smack of the mouth,
"but Liza Pruitt ain't expected to git well."

"Oh, is that the one they had the talk about consarnin' of the
preacher?"

"Yes, Brother Lane."

"Brother Fool. But atter all, not half as big a fool as she was. I do
think of all the fools in the world the woman that gives the opportunity
for 'em to hitch up her name with a preacher's--she's the biggest. Why,
don't a woman know that everybody is a watchin' of a preacher? But he
feels himself safer than any man in the world. Befo' I was married there
was a preacher nam