stop, and says he,
'Can't we make a trade to-day? I'll swap you my mare for your dog.'
And Abram says, 'Done,' and he took hold o' the mare's bridle, and he
pulled a piece o' stout twine out of his pocket and tied it to Tige's
collar and put the end o' the string in Sam's hand. I says to him,
'Why, Abram, you wouldn't take advantage of a poor drunken man, and a
neighbor at that?' And Abram says, 'Make yourself easy, Jane, I'm only
goin' to give Sam a lesson that may shame him out of his drinkin'
habits for awhile, at least.' And then he led the mare to the stable
and told the man to feed her and water her, and he'd call for her
late that evenin'.

"Well, when goin'-home time come round, we set out to look for Sam,
and after lookin' all around the Square and up and down Main Street,
we found him lyin' helpless in the back o' the grocery store. Abram
got two men to help him, and they managed to lift him up and put him
in the wagon. Then we drove around to the livery stable and got the
bay mare and fastened her to the back o' the wagon and started home.
When we got to our gate, Abram put me and the children out and turned
Sam's mare into the horse lot, and then he drove over to Sam's farm as
quick as he could, for he knew Milly was waitin' and grievin'. And
sure enough there she was, standin' under the big sycamore in front o'
the gate, lookin' and listenin' for Sam. She told me afterwards she'd
stayed out that way many a night till her clothes'd be wet with the
dew, and for the rest of her life she hated the sound of crickets and
katydids, because they reminded her of that year when Sam give her so
much trouble.

"Well, Abram drove up to the gate, and Milly was too skeered to speak.
She was always worryin' about Sam fallin' off his horse and breakin'
his neck, and when she saw Abram and nobody with him, she thought he
was comin' on ahead to break the news to her, and Sam's dead body
would be the next thing to come. Abram didn't know this, or he'd a
told her right at once that Sam was in the wagon. He said when he
stopped, Milly was leanin' forward, her hands together, and hardly
enough breath to speak, and she whispered, 'Where's Sam?' And Abram
says, 'Right here in the wagon.' And Milly says, 'Thank God! I was
afraid he was dead.' Now that shows what kind of a heart Milly had.
When a man's brought home dead drunk, child, it ain't every woman
that'll thank God he's alive.

"Well, they had some trouble rousin' Sam, but