stenin' to my pa and grandpa talk--awful
interesting too. Pa was tellin' about "Pinafore"; but grandpa kind o'
smiled in a forced way, because he didn't believe in shows. But pretty
soon it came out that Joe Rainey had been killed the night before, and
Temple Scott had killed him, which boarded at their house. And so I knew
there was another case. And I said to myself, it's lucky I was here, for
if I'd been in town, most likely Mitch and me would have been around
sommers and been witnesses, and got into another tangle, to keep us from
goin' to see Tom Sawyer.

It was this a way, as pa told it. Joe Rainey was drinkin' and he and
Temple Scott was always the best of friends, but when he was drinkin' he
always quarreled with Scott and threatened him. Then my pa says: "His
threats came to nothin'. He wouldn't harm a child. He's threatened me a
hundred times. I never paid any attention to him. Every one knows he was
harmless."

They were practicin' "Pinafore" at Joe Rainey's house--my pa, my ma, and
just as my pa was singin':

The merry, merry maiden, the merry, merry maiden,
The merry, merry maiden and the tar,

all of a sudden they heard a shot, and then another shot, and somebody
opened the door, and there was Joe Rainey lyin' on the porch, almost
dead--unconscious, and bleedin'. And Temple Scott had stood his ground
and said that Rainey had threatened to kill him, and had drawn his
pistol first, and that he shot him in self-defense. My grandpa
interrupted to talk about the sin of drink and what it makes people do.
Then pa went on to say that they searched Joe Rainey's pocket and
couldn't find his pistol; that later they searched the house and his
office and couldn't find his pistol, and the wonder was where it was.
And pa said he didn't believe he had a pistol, at least with him at the
time. But Mrs. Rainey said that her husband had come into the house
earlier in the evening and got the pistol. But pa said that Mrs. Rainey
was too sweet on Temple, and he didn't believe her, and he intended to
prosecute Temple Scott as hard as he could and hang him. Then he said
that this broke up the practicin' of "Pinafore," that Mrs. Rainey was
goin' to play Josephine, but now that her husband was killed, she
couldn't. That they all went home, and that the town was full of talk
over it, and where the pistol was if Joe Rainey ever had one.

Well, Joe Rainey had died about one o'clock that mornin', beggin' every
one not to