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Show A WESTERN CHARACTER, 37 carried in to look at ' em. The Hawkeyes had us along, for they was bound to catch somebody ; an' it was the solemuest time I ever seed. The two Hodges was as cool as cowcumbers, but the other four men was skeered nearly to death. Liecy took a long look, an' then pinted his finger at the Hodges, an' says he : ' There's the man that shot me, an' there's the man that knifed me ! ' " And that settled their hash. So we was all turned loose, an' Bird an' me made tracks for Joe's. When we got nigh the house, we heard an awful racket, an' run in, an' she had Joe down beatin' him with his own crutch. They'd had another row, an' she'd sort o' got the best of it. I snatched the weepin' outen her hand ; then she swore at us, an' lit out on the road with a partin' blessin', an' that's the last we ever seed o' her." " Bolted, did she?" " Rather that way, stranger. But what do you think that woman done? Went straight to Montrose, an' swore to my havin' bogus money, an' the very next day they put me in jail socked me right in with them two Hodges an' I never felt so mean an' streaked in all my life. I had no learnin' ' cept to read a little, an' that was the first I ever felt bad about it. One of the sheriff's men, Hawkins Taylor, was real kind, an' got me some things an' a lot o' copies set. I put, my whole head to it, an' in jest three weeks, sir, I wrote a nice letter to the old woman didn't tell her where I boarded, though an' then I felt easier. If it hadn't been for that, I'd ' agone crazy, shut up so with them Hodges. I've seen ' em more'n once since, in my sleep. They swore an' sung an' joked an' held up pretty stiff they had an idee their friends in Nauvoo would take ' em out but bimeby their brother there was found one morning with his throat cut, jist after he'd seen the head Mormons an' raised a row with ' em about givin' up these two ; an' then they sort o' lost hope. It was no go. Iowa was up then, an' the Mormons might as well a'tried to take ' em from Gineral Jack-son's army. I was turned loose finally, the day before they was hung. " They was people come a hundred miles to see it, an' camped out in wagons. They had so little fun on the Tract, it was a great treat to see somebody hung. Joe an' me was there, an' that's the first an' last sight of that kind I ever took. I've seen plenty killed, but not that way. We sold Joe's place, an' got him home, an' he picked up mightily in old Tennessee. For an East Tennessee man no other place is as good as the mountains. Only place I've seed to compare vith it was in Californy." " What! Have you been to California, too?" |
