rous assault.

But from the time of the first tidings that come of the deed that had
been done--though the excitement wuz more rampant that I ever knew it to
be, and every single man in the community wuz out bloodthirsty for his
death, and every party a-carry-in' a rope to hang him, and every woman
a-lookin' out eager to see him hung, and all on 'em a-cursin' him, and
a-weepin' over what he had done--

Durin' all this time, not one word did I hear uttered agin the cause of
his crime, agin the man who sold him what made him a murderer, and
worse, or the man that supplied the saloon with this damnable liquid.

No, not a single word did I hear from a Jonesvillian, male or female.
And not one word from my pardner, though his excitement wuz so extreme
that that night, jest about dusk, he rushed out thinkin' that he had got
the murderer, and throwed the rope round Deacon Sypher, who had come
over to borrow an auger. And once in a similer way he ketched Old
Bobbet, his excitement and zeal wuz so rampant and intense.

[Illustration: He rushed out and throwed the rope around Deacon Sypher.]

Them old men wuz mad as hens, and cause enough they had, though they
forgive him when they see what a state he wuz in, and they jest about as
bad themselves.

But not a word from them, nor from any one did I hear durin' the hull
time the excitement rained--and oh! how it did rain--about the cause of
the crime.

Not one man waded in and dived down into the deep undercurrent of
causes, that strange deep that underlays all human actions.

And once durin' the last day's hunt for the murderer, who wuz hidin'
round somewhere--it wuz spozed in the woods--I see as I looked out of my
kitchen winder, at a party headed for our swamp, one man fur more
ferocious actin' than any I had seen; he wuz a-hollerin' wilder, and he
carried a fur longer rope.

And I asked my companion who that man wuz that acted madder and fur more
fiercer than any of the rest and more anxious to git holt of the
escapin' man, so he could be hung up to once to the highest tree that
could be found.

I hearn him say that right out of my own kitchen winder--I hearn him
say--

"We won't wait for no law; if we only ketch him we will hang him up so
high that the buzzards can't git him."

And then he yelled out savage and fierce and started off on a run for
the swamp, the rest of the men applaudin' him up high, and follerin' on
after him.

And Josiah told me that wuz the