In Cowboy Land 255 



town jury hang a Cedartown man for stealin' 

 a Medory man's horse/ said he. 



" 'Well, what am I to do about my horse ?' 

 says I. 



" 'Do?' says he; 'well, you know where the 

 man lives, don't you?' says he; 'then sit up 

 outside his house to-night and shoot him when 

 he comes in,' says he, 'and skip out with the 

 horse.' 



" 'All right,' says I, 'that is what I'll do,' 

 and I walked off. 



"So I went off to his house and I laid down 

 behind some sage-bushes to wait for him. He 

 was not at home, but I could see his wife 

 movin' about inside now and then, and I 

 waited and waited, and it growed darker, and 

 I begun to say to myself, 'Now here you are 

 lyin' out to shoot this man when he comes 

 home; and it's gettin' dark, and you don't 

 know him, and if you do shoot the next man 

 that comes into that house, like as not it won't 

 be the fellow you're after at all, but some 

 perfectly innocent man a-comin' there after 

 the other man's wife!' 



"So I up and saddled the bronc' and lit 

 out for home," concluded the narrator with 

 the air of one justly proud of his own self- 

 abnegating virtue. 



