The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1873-12-18

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till bedtime. Our host was one OF
them sort O. chaps that listens a good
deal without saying much, and his wife
looked as if she daren't say much if she
would.
We paid our bills before going to bed.
The other traveller said he was going to
start before day; but as our roads lay
but little together, concluded I
wouldn't rise so soon for the sake Of
only that much company. Sunzise was
early enough for me.
Our sleeping room was one end of the
cabin partitioned off by itself.
Z" It's long time since you and me
slept together" said the stranger, when
we were both ready to lie down.
$50 it is, said I. (Which side do
you take ?"
"FrOnt." said he, eff it's all the
same to You
"All the same" said I, jumping in.
The stranger followed, and I don't
know what he did, but I soon fell
asleep.
1t don't know how late or early it was
when I woke up, feeling chilly. The
moon was shining bright through the
window. The clothes were turned over
from the front side of the bed, and
there stood my bed-fellow, leaning over
me with a big knife in one hand,
fumbling at the buckle of my belt with
the other.
"Of course you grasped the arm that
welded the knife with one of your
hands and the Williams throat with the
other ?" interrupted clustering jury
man.
"Well, no, I didn't"
"You cried out, then ?"
"Nor that, either"
"Well," said the clustering juryman,
"rd like to see the man that would
rob me without tussle for it. Sup
pose he had killed you-what, after all,
is death? Only an eternal sleep, phi
losophy tells us"
"That may be" said Uncle Joe, ''but
I wasn't bit sleepy, just then"
cha, ha" laughed the foreman. "I
never heard the eternal sleep theory
better answered"
"Well," continued Uncle Joe, 'I lay
still as a mouse till that pesky critter
undone my belt and slipped it from
under mo, which he did so gently that
I hardly felt it, wide awake as was.
Then he pulled the cover over me, and
tucking it in as carefully as a mother
could have done, he buckled my belt
around him, finished dressing and slip
ped out"
"And you lay there and let yourself |
be robbed without uttering a word ?" |
again broke in the clustering juryman.
'I didn't see no good in speaking,
said Uncle Joe; "I knew he'd sock his
knife into me if so much as chirped,
and take his chance O. cutting his way
through the landlord afterward, if so be
he woke up. No, didn't say a word,
but just turned over and took another
nap, and in good time got up, mounted
old Roam and rode off, just as if moth
ing had happened. I got to my journeys
end that day, and bought my land the
next"
"But your money!" the foreman re-
minded him.
so that was all right" said Uncle
Joe.
"Why, didn't the robber get it p
"He got the belt" Uncle Joe an
swered. "You see, mother and me
knew that money belts had got to be so
much in fashion that they were the first
thing every robber went for, and once
they got mans belt, they'd go off con-
tented. So, what does mother and me
do but fill my belt with pewter buttons,
and mother she sewed the double eagles
into the lining of my coonskin jacket,
which the fur on the outside kept from
showing, and there I carried them safe
enough"
We were still laughing at Uncle Joe's |
story, when the bsiliff tapped at the
door. The judge wanted to see us. His
honor had had his supper, and feeling !
in better humor, he discharged us from