PAINTED ROCK
Smith, and that Smith was sayin' nothin' about it. Well, you can believe me, I was clean clear flummoxed, and still I didn't tumble. You see, I wasn't married as yet, and Mrs. Gedge was at that time no more than one of the gals for whom I had a tender feelin' and as much respect as they forced me to hev. Though I hed bin some cold with Smith, seein' the way he put up with Hale's want of manners before this, I went down to Smith's store and walked in to see what I could see. And what I saw was poor Smith, cryin like a lost kid, with his head on a parcel of store pants. He sobbed fit to tear the works out of himself, and it made me that bashful and ashamed that I retired to the rear and saw him no more until this very day that he put his head into this saloon and never knew me. And that night (I'm tellin' you the truth, though you may stare and shake your cabezas till they fall off) he signed over all his business to this same Hale, and took the cash and departed for the down-trodden realm of England. He said good-bye to none, for the boys were some cold, naturally, ez they hed reckoned on him
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