"Cut off his head with a scythe ?" "I hated to, bein' as he was my cousin," said Joshua, "but I couldn't have him cum any of them tricks on me.

I don't see as it's any wuss than shootin' a man." "What did you do with his body ?" asked Joe, commanding his voice.
"Bein' as 'twas warm weather, I thought I'd better bury him at once." "Were you arrested ?" "Yes, and tried for murder, but my lawyer proved that I was crazy when I did it, and so I got off." "Do such things often happen at the North ?" asked the Pike County man.
"Not so often as out here and down South, I guess," said Joshua.
"It's harder to get off.

Sometimes a man gets hanged up North for handlin' his gun too careless." "Did you ever kill anybody else ?" asked the Pike man, eying Joshua rather uneasily.
"No," said Mr.Bickford.

"I shot one man in the leg and another in the arm, but that warn't anything serious." It was hard to disbelieve Joshua, he spoke with such apparent frankness and sincerity.

The man from Pike County was evidently puzzled, and told no more stories of his own prowess.