The Lord told me so straight from the clouds. These
railroads and coal-mines is a-goin' to raise taxes, so that a pore
man'll have to sell his hogs and his corn to pay 'em an' have
nothin' left to keep him from starvin' to death. Them police-
fellers over thar at the Gap is a-stirrin' up strife and a-runnin'
things over thar as though the earth was made fer 'em, an' the
citizens ain't goin' to stand it. An' this war's a-comin' on an'
thar'll be shootin' an' killin' over thar an' over hyeh. I seed
all this devilment in a vision last night, as shore as I'm settin'
hyeh."
Old Judd grunted, shifted his huge shoulders, parted his mustache
and beard with two fingers and spat through them.
"Well, I reckon you didn't see no devilment. Red, that you won't
take a hand in, if it comes."
The other men laughed, but the Red Fox looked meek and lowly.
"I'm a servant of the Lord. He says do this, an' I does it the
best I know how. I goes about a-preachin' the word in the
wilderness an' a-healin' the sick with soothin' yarbs and sech."
"An' a-makin' compacts with the devil," said old Judd shortly,
"when the eye of man is a-lookin' t'other way.
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