And Josiah Allen acted awfully horrified at my idee, and asked me "if I
wuz as crazy as a loon?"

And sez he, "He has been one of the fiercest ones to head him off that
has been out."

And I sez dryly--dry as a chip, "He wuzn't so fierce to head him off the
night he sold him the whiskey and hard cider." Sez I, "That headin' off
would have amounted to sunthin'."

And agin I sez, "The rope ort to be used on his own neck, if it is on
anybody's, his and Uncle Sam's."

And agin Josiah Allen asked me, "If I wuz as crazy as a dumb loon and a
losin' my faculties--what few of 'em you ever had," sez he.

And I sez, "The two wuz in partnership together, and they got the man to
do the murder." Sez I, "Most all the murders that are done in this
country are done by that firm--the Goverment and the Saloon-keeper. And
when their poor tools, that they have whetted up for bloodshed, swing
out through their open doors and cut and slash and mow down their
ghastly furrows of crime and horrer, who is to blame?"

And Josiah turned over the almanac to the yeller cover and perused it,
so's to show his perfect and utter indifference and contempt for my
words.

Wall, they ketched the man a day or two after, about sundown. He had
been a little ahead of his pursuers, a-dodgin' 'em this way and that
way, jest like a fox a-dodgin' a pack of hounds.