Page:Morley roberts--Painted Rock.djvu/21

 the land where they were born jest as if it was as fine a land as Georgia, and not a downtrodden place with kings and queens in it. If any Englishman in the present company ain't pleased with my deescription of Britain, I hereby apologise and state that I'm not wholly serious. Well, Smith took this sad idea into his cabeza, and, after rakin' up an honest man (he came from Georgia, and I won't give his name away), he lit out for the old country and was gone nigh on to nine months. Durin' that period thishyer honest Georgian had a time collectin' debts at the end of a gun, but I'll say this for the galoot, that the debts that wasn't collected on time was few. And when Smith come back he was that pleased with me that he endowed me there and then with two hundred and fifty dollars over and above what the contract called for. Oh, he was an honest man and one that I liked, and he was tol'rable popular; oh, he was tol'rable popular. And I soon perceived that a change had come over him through this trip of his to the old country, and he let out what it was the very night he