--"

"Jasper, didn't Peters say he was a comin' after you?"

"Margaret, is it possible that you've been listenin' to two men talkin'
business? Now, business is a sort of a sacred thing. A feller in the
Bible says, 'I'd like might'ly to go to yo' little dinner, but I've got
to break a yoke of steers an' you must 'skuze me.' So, Margaret, you
must never interfere with bisiness."

"But didn't you say suthin' about that you might have to kill him?
Didn't you?"

"Huh. We must have been talkin' about a sheep that broke his leg. When a
sheep breaks his leg, you know, he's about gone. Mighty hard thing to
cure a sheep, makes no diffunce what's the matter with him. Feller over
near Smithfield had a sheep once that--"

"Didn't he say he was a goin' to be app'inted deputy marshal?"

"Who, the sheep? Now, I don't believe a sheep would make a very good
deputy marshal. Strikes me that the wolf would be a trifle better."

"Jasper, I didn't say a word about a sheep, and you know it."

"That's a fact. I was the one that was a talkin' about a sheep. I know'd
it was one of us, but I sorter forgot which one."

"Didn't he say that you made a good deal o' licker when the sun wan't
shinin'? Didn't he?"

"Margaret, ef you keep on, I'll be fo'ced to believe you have been
listenin'; an' I'd hate to think that. Thar ain't nuthin' much wus than
listenin' to other folks when they talk business. Now the fust woman on
the earth listened when her husband he was a talkin' to an angel that
was out in the garden a sunnin' hisse'f, and they called her a Eve
drapper."

"Wall, you wan't a talkin' to no angel, I'll tell you that."

"Talkin' to one now, ain't I?"

"Jasper, I didn't come in here to be made fun of. I'd rather quarrel
than to be made fun of."

"I don't know but that's a fact."

"Now why don't you tell me all about it?"

"I don't see the use in my repeatin' suthin' you've already hearn."

"Already hearn? I ain't hearn a word, and you know it. But suppose he do
git the app'intment--won't it mean trouble?"

"Wall, I don't know but it will. They do say that it's a sorter
troublesome job. Know'd a feller that was app'inted once, and he was
shot between the eyes--puttiest shot you ever saw. Man said, 'You
couldn't do that ag'in in ten years,' and putty soon thar come along
another deputy, an' blamed if he didn't do it ag'in."

"I wish you wouldn't pester me so--when I've already got trouble on my
mind."

"What's troublin' you