"And they've convinced a heap o' others, too, one way and another, yes, sir. One man thar,—he's a goin' to be the biggest feller in the parade,—they reasoned with him both before and after they whooped him. He's convinced, yes, sir, and don't hold no gredge, neither. He says: 'Boys, you whooped me into this theng, but I like hit so well, you'll have to whoop me out o' hit!'"
"The night rider fellers didn't give you nary skeer, did they?" Mr. Lindsay took a wire staple from between his teeth to ask.
Mr. Doggett looked sheepishly down at the ground for a few minutes before he answered.
"The old lady—ef I wuz to tell you somethin', Mr. Lindsay," he hazarded, "would you promise ferever to keep hit from the old lady?"
After Mr. Lindsay's remark that he thought he could safely promise that, Mr. Doggett took the precautionary measure of drawing his improvised chair a little nearer.
"Hit wuz away after ten when I got to the depot thar that evenin' I went," he began, "and Hancock he lives five miles out, yes, sir. Hit wuz so dark I wouldn't 'a' knew my own grandmother ef I'd 'a' met her, but I got perticular diractions and 'lowed I could make out to find the way a walkin'.
"I'd got about two miles and a half out, nigh about, before I seed anybody on the road: then I heerd a trompin' and made out a gang o' about forty fellers a ridin'. They wuzn't carryin' no beeg lights,—jest one er two lanterns wuz all—and ever' feller had a piece o' black cloth acrost the top o' his face.
"'Hello thar, Bud!' the foremost one hollered out to me when I sorter aidged to one side the road,—'are you a goin' to raise a terbaccer crop this year?'
"I noticed some of 'em wuz a carryin' hoes and shovels, and one o' two sacks o' somethin, besides some guns, but I wuz tuck so suddent I never once thought what they wuz up to.
"'Yes, sir' I says, 'I'm a aimin' to put in a right smart o' a crop.'