I've heard him say that often, and you needn't be afraid of his not bein' able to pay you.

Thess to think o' little Sonny bein' a grad'jatean' all by his own efforts, too!

I knowed then ez well ez ef she'd 'a' told me why she done itall on account o' Sonny bein' so tickled over the 'Piscopals' meetin's.

And you remember she said in her piece, 'she wuz turned out of the post-office for borryin' five cents from the Government, and bein' backward with another five, ten cents in all, and them post-office clerks in Washington stealin' hundreds of thousands and nothin' done.'"

"What was the notion of tearin' off all them confidences about bein' busted and yore dear friends at the Bar S and how you and me was gonna play detective?

Too busy bein' nothin'?

That wuz bein' too cautious, and a good many think he's been a little too mute about some things, he didn't tell jest where his politics wuz.

And now she wuz tryin' a new skeem to git into the first, she got up a name for bein' very charitable.

When a man ups and does something nobody else can do, if they'd bust their biler tryin', then he is sot down as bein' crazy as a loon by his jelous nabors.

He once more shifted the wad of tobacco, as a preliminary to expectorating gravely into the sand floor, and pronounced his sentence with a promptness that savored of relish: "The verdict of the jury is that we hang Jack Allen for killin' Texas and Rawhide, and for bein' a mean, ornery cuss, anyway.

Dat bein' an up and down officer.

"I set down by Hetty; and the old woman bein' as deaf as a post, it was as good as if I'd been there alone.

People talk bout dis gamblin an drinkin bein a late thingdem white fokes done hit way back yonder 90 years ergo, cause mah ole boss gambled me off, ah clare he did.

"It must be mighty dull bein' an officer.

" I never knew exactly how Thomas J. worked it, or what he paid 'em, but I know that a day or two after, the prices them livin' statutes asked Josiah for bein' whitewashed, wuz sunthin' perfectly exorbitant, and so with the Powers and the Peaceful Inventors.

But you couldn't help bein' friendly with the Potters, they was such outspoken, kindly creturs, from the Squire down to little Hen.

wuz fightin tuh free us dey stole hosses an run erway tuh keep fum bein set free.

By this time Major was twenty-two and I was eighteen; and Squire Potter he'd left his house up on the hill, and he'd bought out Miss Perrit's house, and added on to't, and moved down not far from us, so's to be near the railroad-depot, for the sake of bein' handy to the woods, for cuttin' and haulin' of them down to the track.

An'an' the way you stood up fer me bein' honest was jus' splendidafter what you'd said about tellin' lies, too.

But I tell you, Miss Miriam, if you was to say Molly, that you an' Mr. Haverley liked corn-cakes an' was always used to 'em before you come here, an' that they 'greed with you, then in course she'd make 'em, an' there'd be a lot left over for me, for I don't 'spect you all could eat the corn-bread she'd make, but I'd eat it, bein' so powerful hungry for corn-meal.

'Oh, an then he went on'pursued Bessie with gusto'about your bein too ignorant to put it in the post-office.

"I was in London when the flare-up came, an' bein' interested in business I didn't ball up my intellect with politics an' newspaper war talk.

And he bein' kinder fraxious, sez: "I hain't seen that yet, nor you nuther.

They were a band of outlaws an' robbers, that had been in the county ever since I could remember, an', bein' too lazy to make an honest livin' by trappin', they went around plunderin' an' stealin' from every one they come across.

"I hope you rubbed it in, good and plenty," said Mary, "about them bein' so mean and full of bad thoughts.