“I hev come, Aaron,” he said, “ter git another two gallons o’ that thar whisky ez I hed from you-uns, an’ I hev brung the balance of the money I owed ye on that, an’ enough ter pay for the jugful, too. Hyar is a haffen dollar fur the old score, an’—”
“That thar eends it,” said Aaron, pocketing the tendered fifty cents. “We air even, an’ ye’ll git no more whisky from hyar, Mose Carter.”
“Wha—what did ye say, Aaron? I hain’t got the rights ’zactly o’ what ye said.” And Carter peered in great amaze through the gloom at his host, who was carefully filling a pipe. As Aaron stooped to get a coal from the furnace one of the others spoke.
“He said ez ye’ll git no more whisky from hyar. An’ it air a true word.”
The flare from the furnace again momentarily illumined the room, and as the door clashed it again fell back into the uncertain shadow.
“That is what I tole ye,” said Aaron, reseating himself and puffing his pipe into a strong glow, “an’ ef ye hain’t a-onderstandin’ of it yit I’ll say it agin—ye an’ the rest of yer tribe will git no more liquor from hyar.”
“An’ what’s the reason I hain’t a-goin’ ter get no more liquor from hyar?” demanded Moses Carter in virtuous indignation. “Hain’t I been ez good pay ez any man down this hyar gorge an’ the whole mounting atop o’ that? Look-a hyar, Aaron Brice, ye ain’t a-goin’ ter try ter purtend ez I don’t pay fur the liquor ez I gits hyar—an’ you-uns an’ me done been a-tradin’ tergither peaceable-like fur nigh on ter ten solid year.”
“An’ then ye squar’ round an’ gits me an’ my brothers a-turned out’n the church fur runnin’ of a still whar ye gits yer whisky from. Good pay or bad pay, it’s all the same ter me.”
“I never gin my vote fur a-turnin’ of ye out ’kase of ye a-runnin’ of a still.” Moses Carter trembled in his eager anxiety to discriminate the grounds upon which he had cast his ballot. “It war fur a-gittin’ drunk an’ astayin’ drunk, ez ye mos’ly air a-doin—an’ ye will ’low yerself, Aaron, ez that thar air a true word. I don’t see no harm in a-runnin’ of a still an’ a-drinkin’ some, but not ter hurt. It air this hyar gittin’ drunk constant ez riles me.”