egyars
and I'll make a shift of burnin' one of 'em."

Warren went out. Lyman feasted his eyes on the old man. "How are they
all, Uncle Buckley?"

"Jest about the same. Jimmy killed the biggest black snake yistidy--I
think it was yistidy. Let me see. I know in reason it was yistidy, for
I was a splittin' some wood when he fotch the thing along, draggin' it
by the tail. Though that mout have been day before yistidy. I believe
it was day before yistidy. Anyhow it was the biggist black snake ever
killed out there since the war, but of course in my day they killed
bigger ones. He found him out in a blackberry patch and mauled him to
death. Oh, he was a snorter. That's about the biggest piece of news
I've got. Let me see. Lige met a pole-cat somewhere in the woods and
socity ain't been hankering after Lige since then. I seen him this
mornin' as I was comin' in, and I yelled at him to keep his distance,
and he did or I would have hit him. Yes, sir, I can't stand a
pole-cat. You ricollect Mab Basey, I reckon. She run away with a
feller that come to help cut wheat and they ain't seen her sense. Oh,
he married her and all that, but they don't know where she is. Luke
Brizentine didn't git over it."

"What, Mab's running away?"

"Oh, no, not that. Didn't I tell you? Why, Jeff Sarver filled him so
full of shot that his hide looked like a nutmeg grater. Yes, sir. They
got into a difficulty over a steer that had been jumpin' into a field,
and he tried to stab Jeff and Jeff shot him. Made a good deal of a
stir at the time and Luke didn't live but two days, but how he could
live that long was more than we could see, and it caused a good deal
of surprise. Now, wait a minit. It was day before yistidy that Jimmy
killed the snake. Sammy, where is that man that was your partner?"

"He has an office on the other side of the square."

"Yes, but are you sure, Sammy, that he ain't your partner?"

"Absolutely certain, Uncle Buckley."

The old man scratched his head. "Sammy, that man ain't honest."

"I am quite sure of that."

"He has fotch it home to me that he ain't, Sammy. But I don't know
that I ought to tell you about it; I reckon I ought to let it go. And
still, it wouldn't be treatin' you exactly right. He is a forger,
Sammy. Look at this."

He had taken out a pocket-book and from about it was unwinding a
string, and when the string came off, he took out a piece of paper and
handed it to Lyman. It was a note for one hundred do