Raymond S. Spears

“ She walked to the grave and gathered up the earthenware and broken glass, carrying them to the hollow around which the burdock grew. She cleared up the litter around the grave and carried the rifle and unbroken whisky-jugs down to the road-side, where she put them conspicuously upon a ledge of stone.
"Nex' time that ol' scoundrel totes whisky, he'll pass by yon side my orchard, an' he wont mess up Jorum's grave!" she told herself. "I ain' no good with bullets, but I shore pricked that scoundrel Avelman with squirrel shoots, I sho' did! ”

“ He shouted the news at every house and cabin, at the storehouse and at the mill. He rode a sweating horse into County Court.
The sheriff, the coroner, the county judge, the county clerk, all rode up the road in an automobile to the scene. They found a half-hundred people gathered about the dead man, awaiting the authorities. Two or three said they had heard a shot the night before, about eleven o'clock. Some called attention to the rifle and whisky-jugs up opposite the widow's cabin. ”

“ Bucks scatters too much. Neveh in God's world would yo' hit a squirrel with a charge o' buck."
"Then a storehouse-keeper who sold a box of buck-shoots to a widdy lady to shoot squirrels an' rabbits with, is a low down, no-'count, cheatin' scoundrel, aint he?"
"He shore is, Mrs. Colfreh!"
"An' a widdy lady shootin' them big shoots mout miss a squirrel an' hit a cow er hoss an' damage 'im right smart?"
"Yas, Mrs. Colfreh—er a man."
"Now, if yo' wanted to drive away a bull as was in yo' corn, an ugly bull, yo'd shoot 'im easy with squirrel-shoots, wouldn't yo?" ”

“ She had shot Dack Avelman in cold blood, from ambush. The politicians were indignant. She had broken up their combination. She had made it necessary to find a new Marble Ridge leader.
"These yeah killin's is got to stop!" people said. "Even if ladies does meanness, it aint no sign they can go free, 'thout they's be'n insulted, er sunthin'. Avelman killed her man square, in self-defense. What right's she got to go kill 'im?"
They managed to grow indignant over the matter. Mrs. Colfreh changed her mind about wanting an attorney. She refused lo talk with one assigned to her by the court. ”

“ The prosecutor had the storehouse-keeper indicted, tried and convicted on the charge of criminal carelessness, and sent to jail for a month.
"Dad-blasted cuss!" the prosecutor declared to his cronies. "We mout of knowed, sellin' a lady buck-shots to kill squirrels—an' jes' that busted up ouh holt onto them Marble Ridge votehs. Sho! A man's plumb disgusted!" ”

“ WHO KILLED DACK AVELMAN—
HIMSELF, THE STOREKEEPER
OR THE IGGERANT WIDDY?
By Raymond S. Spears
Author of "A Jigtime Defense" "A Successful Man," "The Peaceable Widow," etc.
JOYLAND COLFREH was a little mountain woman, brown-eyed, buxom and friendly. She had loved her man. He had been kind to her. He had worked hard, and he liked to bring her things from the storehouse to put on her table, or tie around her throat, or hang on the cabin wall. ”

“ Colfreh, more'n onct!"
"Yo' neighbors have, too?"
"They always does—"
"That's all."
"NOW I'll swear an' set!" Mrs. Colfreh announced. From the witness-chair, which she took in her own behalf, she said:
"I bought that gun an' shoots to kill meat with, fo' potpies. Some squirrels an' quails was around my place, an' I 'lowed to kill some. Well, I bought the gun an' shoots. I didn't know nothin' about 'em. I said 'squirrel-shoots.' Then somebody was turning up my man's grave an' puttin" whisky-jugs onto hit, 'stead of posies. ”

“ If I'm guilty, I should be punished, an' if I aint, I'm goin' free. Nobody knows but me, an' I can tell hit! All I want's a jury an' witnesses. I aint be'n treated square, an I aint to blame if sumthin' happened. ”