The blacksmith says, by and by:
"The revenge idea won't work, you see. Well,
then, what's next? Robbery? B'gosh, that must 'a'
been it, Tom! Yes, sirree, I reckon we've struck it
this time. Some feller wanted his gallus-buckles, and
so he --"
But it was so funny he busted out laughing, and just
went on laughing and laughing and laughing till he was
'most dead, and Tom looked so put out and cheap that
I knowed he was ashamed he had come, and he wished
he hadn't. But old Hooker never let up on him. He
raked up everything a person ever could want to kill
another person about, and any fool could see they
didn't any of them fit this case, and he just made no
end of fun of the whole business and of the people
that had been hunting the body; and he said:
"If they'd had any sense they'd 'a' knowed the lazy
cuss slid out because he wanted a loafing spell after all
this work. He'll come pottering back in a couple of
weeks, and then how'll you fellers feel? But, laws
bless you, take the dog, and go and hunt his re-
mainders. Do, Tom."
Then he busted out, and had another of them forty-
rod laughs of hisn. Tom couldn't back down after all
this, so he said, "All right, unchain him;" and the
blacksmith done it, and we started home and left that
old man laughing yet.
It was a lovely dog. There ain't any dog that's got
a lovelier disposition than a bloodhound, and this one
knowed us and liked us.
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