第44章

"Well, then, what did you want to kill him for?""Why, nothing -- only it's on account of the feud.""What's a feud?"

"Why, where was you raised? Don't you know what a feud is?""Never heard of it before -- tell me about it.""Well," says Buck, "a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man's brother kills HIM; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the COUSINS chip in -- and by and by everybody's killed off, and there ain't no more feud.

But it's kind of slow, and takes a long time.""Has this one been going on long, Buck?"

"Well, I should RECKON! It started thirty year ago, or som'ers along there.There was trouble 'bout something, and then a lawsuit to settle it; and the suit went agin one of the men, and so he up and shot the man that won the suit -- which he would naturally do, of course.Anybody would.""What was the trouble about, Buck? -- land?""I reckon maybe -- I don't know."

"Well, who done the shooting? Was it a Grangerford or a Shepherdson?""Laws, how do I know? It was so long ago.""Don't anybody know?"

"Oh, yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old people; but they don't know now what the row was about in the first place.""Has there been many killed, Buck?"

"Yes; right smart chance of funerals.But they don't always kill.Pa's got a few buckshot in him; but he don't mind it 'cuz he don't weigh much, anyway.Bob's been carved up some with a bowie, and Tom's been hurt once or twice.""Has anybody been killed this year, Buck?""Yes; we got one and they got one.'Bout three months ago my cousin Bud, fourteen year old, was riding through the woods on t'other side of the river, and didn't have no weapon with him, which was blame' foolishness, and in a lonesome place he hears a horse a-coming behind him, and sees old Baldy Shepherdson a-linkin' after him with his gun in his hand and his white hair a-flying in the wind; and 'stead of jumping off and taking to the brush, Bud 'lowed he could outrun him; so they had it, nip and tuck, for five mile or more, the old man a-gaining all the time; so at last Bud seen it warn't any use, so he stopped and faced around so as to have the bullet holes in front, you know, and the old man he rode up and shot him down.But he didn't git much chance to enjoy his luck, for inside of a week our folks laid HIM out.""I reckon that old man was a coward, Buck.""I reckon he WARN'T a coward.Not by a blame' sight.There ain't a coward amongst them Shepherdsons -- not a one.And there ain't no cowards amongst the Grangerfords either.Why, that old man kep' up his end in a fight one day for half an hour against three Grangerfords, and come out winner.They was all a-horseback; he lit off of his horse and got behind a little woodpile, and kep' his horse before him to stop the bullets; but the Grangerfords stayed on their horses and capered around the old man, and peppered away at him, and he peppered away at them.Him and his horse both went home pretty leaky and crippled, but the Grangerfords had to be FETCHED home -- and one of 'em was dead, and another died the next day.No, sir; if a body's out hunting for cowards he don't want to fool away any time amongst them Shepherdsons, becuz they don't breed any of that KIND."Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody a-horseback.

The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall.The Shepherdsons done the same.

It was pretty ornery preaching -- all about brotherly love, and such-like tiresomeness; but everybody said it was a good sermon, and they all talked it over going home, and had such a powerful lot to say about faith and good works and free grace and preforeordestination, and I don't know what all, that it did seem to me to be one of the roughest Sundays I had run across yet.

About an hour after dinner everybody was dozing around, some in their chairs and some in their rooms, and it got to be pretty dull.Buck and a dog was stretched out on the grass in the sun sound asleep.I went up to our room, and judged I would take a nap myself.I found that sweet Miss Sophia standing in her door, which was next to ours, and she took me in her room and shut the door very soft, and asked me if I liked her, and I said I did; and she asked me if I would do something for her and not tell anybody, and I said I would.Then she said she'd forgot her Testament, and left it in the seat at church between two other books, and would Islip out quiet and go there and fetch it to her, and not say nothing to nobody.I said I would.So I slid out and slipped off up the road, and there warn't anybody at the church, except maybe a hog or two, for there warn't any lock on the door, and hogs likes a puncheon floor in summer-time because it's cool.If you notice, most folks don't go to church only when they've got to; but a hog is different.

Says I to myself, something's up; it ain't natural for a girl to be in such a sweat about a Testament.So I give it a shake, and out drops a little piece of paper with "HALF-PAST TWO" wrote on it with a pencil.

I ransacked it, but couldn't find anything else.I couldn't make anything out of that, so I put the paper in the book again, and when I got home and upstairs there was Miss Sophia in her door waiting for me.She pulled me in and shut the door; then she looked in the Testament till she found the paper, and as soon as she read it she looked glad; and before a body could think she grabbed me and give me a squeeze, and said I was the best boy in the world, and not to tell anybody.She was mighty red in the face for a minute, and her eyes lighted up, and it made her powerful pretty.

I was a good deal astonished, but when I got my breath I asked her what the paper was about, and she asked me if I had read it, and I said no, and she asked me if I could read writing, and I told her "no, only coarse-hand,"and then she said the paper warn't anything but a book-mark to keep her place, and I might go and play now.