“He carried a banner.”

Thinking this and feelin the importance of my duty, I decided to begin to edicate him then and there.

He has a habit of gittin up and leavin me when I begin to talk to him on things; so I made up my mind that I would fix him this time so he couldent git away, and would give him some plain talk on the money question.

I got the rope I use as a clothes line, and, slippin up behind him, I wound it around and around him and the tree from his waist to his neck. He never flinched. Then I got the check lines from the barn, and, fastenin them to his feet, I tied one to one gate post and one to the other, and with the hitchin strap I tied his hands behind him. Then I got a straw and tickled his nose.

You ort a seen him try to jump; but he couldent move.

He opened his eyes and says to me, skeert like:

“Betsy, what does all this mean?”

I think he was afraid I was a goin to kill him, but, answerin, says I:

“It means, Mr. Gaskins, that I propose to discuss the money question here without interference and without my audience a leavin before I git done, as is its usual custom.”