I never seed anybody take on like Bills's
woman. It was distressin'; it was, indeed.--Went into hysterics, she
did; and we thought far awhile she'd gone plum crazy, far she cried so
pitiful over him, and called him "Charley! Charley!" 'stid of his
right name, and went on, clean out of her head, tel she finally jist
fainted clean away.
Far three weeks Bills laid betwixt life and death, and that woman set
by him night and day, and tended him as patient as a' angel--and she
was a' angel, too; and he'd a-never lived to bother nobody agin ef it
hadn't a-be'n far Annie, as he called her. Zions said ther was a
'brazure of the--some kind o' p'tubernce, and ef he'd a-be'n struck
jist a quarter of a' inch below--jist a quarter of a' inch--he'd
a-be'n a dead man. And I've sence wished--not 'at I want the life of a
human bein' to account far, on'y, well, no odds--I've sence wished 'at
I had a-hit him jist a quarter of a' inch below!
Well, of course, them days ther wasn't no law o' no account, and
nothin' was ever done about it. So Steve and me got our grindin', and
talked the matter over with Ezry and the boys. Ezry said he was
a-goin' to do all he could far Bills, 'cause he was a good hand, and
when he wasn't drinkin' ther wasn't no peaceabler man in the
settlement.
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