"Then do you tell your pardner the meanin' of your actions imegetly and
to once."

"I hain't got time," sez he, and oh! how he wuz onriddlin' that old
bedstead of the rope; the fuzz fairly flew offen the rope as he yanked
it through them holes, and twice I wuz hit by it voyalently in my face,
as I strove to hold him, and elicit some information out of him.

But I could git nothin' but hard breathin' and muttered oathes till the
bed-cord wuz all onloosened, and then he gathered it over his arm and
started on the run for the door, I a-follerin'.

And then I see that there stood Old Bobbet, Sime Yerden, Deacon Sypher,
and, in fact, most all the men in the neighborhood and some beyend it,
some from the Loontown road, and some from over towards Shackville.
There wuz more'n twenty of 'em.

And I sez, and I almost fainted as I sez it--

"Has another war broke loose, or is it a wild animal from a circus? Tell
me, oh, tell me what it is!"

And one on 'em hollered, "It is a wild beast in human shape, but he
won't be a wild beast much longer!"

And he pinted to the rope he had on his arm.

And I see then the fearful meanin' hangin' round that bed-cord. I see
that others had 'em, and I see that hangin' wuz about to take place and
ensue. And I besought Josiah Allen "to pause, to stay a little, to tell