agitated and wrought up, that the
idee passed through my mind:

Is that man a-contemplatin' suicide? Does he want to hang himself?

But, as I sez, the idee only jest passed through my fore-top; it didn't
find any encouragement to stay--it went through on the trot, as you may
say.

No, my noble-minded pardner never would commit suicide, I knew. But his
looks wuz fearful, and I sez, almost tremblin'--

"What do you want the rope for? I don't know of any rope, only the
bed-cord up in the old chamber."

At these words, that agitated, skairt man rushed right upstairs, I
a-follerin' him, summer-savory still in my hands, and fear and tremblin'
in my mean.

And I see him dash up to the old bedstead in the attick, dash off the
bedclothes and the feather-bed, and beginnin' oncordin' of it.

I then laid hands on him, and commanded him to desist.

"I won't desist," sez he, "I won't desist."

There wuz I, still a-holdin' him by the back of his frock--he had on his
barn clothes.

"Then do you tell your pardner the meanin' of your actions imegetly and
to once."

"I hain't got time," sez he, and oh! how he wuz onriddlin' that old
bedstead of the rope; the fuzz fairly flew offen the rope as he yanked
it through them holes, and twice I wuz hit by it voyalently in my face,
as I strove to hold him, and elicit some information out of him.

But I could git nothin' but hard breathin' and muttered oathes till the
bed-cord wuz all onloosened, and then he gathered it over his arm and
started on the run for the door, I a-follerin'.

And then I see that there stood Old Bobbet, Sime Yerden, Deacon Sypher,
and, in fact, most all the men in the neighborhood and some beyend it,
some from the Loontown road, and some from over towards Shackville.
There wuz more'n twenty of 'em.

And I sez, and I almost fainted as I sez it--

"Has another war broke loose, or is it a wild animal from a circus? Tell
me, oh, tell me what it is!"

And one on 'em hollered, "It is a wild beast in human shape, but he
won't be a wild beast much longer!"

And he pinted to the rope he had on his arm.

And I see then the fearful meanin' hangin' round that bed-cord. I see
that others had 'em, and I see that hangin' wuz about to take place and
ensue. And I besought Josiah Allen "to pause, to stay a little, to tell
me what it all meant, to not take the law into his own hands."

I poured out words like a flood, I wuz inkoherent in the extreme, and my
words wuz