Page:Hell-Bent fer Heaven (Hughes 1924).pdf/51

Rh

[Looks at her, puzzled]

Why, Mam! What sort of a graveyard rabbit has crossed your path? Me an’ Andy use’ to have shootin’ matches ’thout you makin’ no fuss about it!

I don’t keer! I’ve seed enough shootin’ an’ fightin’ in my time! An’ I’ve hyeard enough talk about war!

’Tain’t a-goin’ to do no harm fer us to shoot at a spot on a tree!

’Tain’t a-goin’ to do no good! [With a sudden flare of passion] An’ I wisht you’d throw that pistol in the river! The man it belonged to had a mammy, too! Think how she feels—wherever she is!

If he had been to as many shootin’ matches as Sid, mebby you’d be the one that’s a-feelin’ that way!

It wusn’t the shootin’ matches that saved Sid. It ’us the will o’ God.