"Ye'll git uster that air red flag ef ye stay long in these parts. Ye
ain't so fer from right arter all, though, fer I guess mos' folks'd
baout as leeve hev the smallpox in the house ez the sheriff."
"Times are pretty hard hereabouts, are they?"
"Wal, yes, they be baout ez hard ez they kin be, but ye see it's wuss
in this ere caounty 'n 'tis 'n mos' places, cause ther warn't nary
court here fer six or eight year, till lately, an no debts wuz klected
'n so they've kinder piled up. I callate they ain't but dern few
fellers in the caounty 'cept the parsons, 'n lawyers, 'n doctors ez
ain't a bein sued ted-day, 'specially the farmers. I tell you it makes
business lively fer the lawyers an sheriffs. They're the ones ez rides
in kerridges these days."
"Is the jail pretty full now?"
"Chock full, hed to send a batch up ter Lenox las' week, an got em
packed bout's thick's they'll lay naow, like codfish in a bar'l. Haow
in time I'm a gonter make room fer the fellers the court'll send in
nex' week, I d'now, derned if I dew. They'd orter be three new jails
in the caounty this blamed minit."
"Do you expect a good many more this week?"
"Gosh, yes. Why, man alive, the Common Pleas never had ez much business
ez this time.
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