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"I suppose not," Mostyn said

"Well, I can't complain; they have their sport with one another Dolph Wartrace, you know, that keeps the cross-roads store nigh us, clerked in Darley before he went in on his own hook out here, an' I've heard 'im tell of a lot o' pranks that they had over thar He said thar was an old bachelor that, kept a dry-goods store who never had had much to do o woman that he had his eye on, an' now an' then he'd spruce up an' go to see 'er or take 'er out to meetin', but Jeff said he was too weak-kneed to pop the question, an' the gal went off on a visit to Alaba o' friends that was always in for fun, an' with long, sad faces they went about askin' everybody they met if they had heard that Bob Hadley--that was the feller's name--if they had heard that he was dead Bob knohat they was sayin' an' tried to put a pleasant face on it, but it must have been hard work, considerin' all that happened

"Well, one thing added to another till a gang of Bob's friends one to bed and still with sad, solemn faces declared that, considerin' his untimely end, it was their bounden duty to bury 'im in a respectable way So they went to the furniture store close by an' borrowed a coffin an' picked out pall-bearers A feller that slept with Bob in the little rooame, an' he had a key an' unlocked the door, an' the solein' some sad hymn or other with every man-jack of 'eood as far as it went, but thar was a traitor in the camp Soot to the door of the little roorunt an' let into firin' blank-cartridges straight at 'em Folks say that thar was some o' the tallest runnin' an' jumpin' an' hidin' under counters an' bustin' show-cases that ever tuck place out of a circus After that night Jeff said the whole toasan' tellin' 'em that thar must 'a' been some mistake about the report of Bob Hadley's death anyway"