“I don't care none ef it was,” snapped Mr. Ezell. “And, besides, whut's that got to do with it--with the principle of the thing? It was a deliberate insult flung right in the face of the late Southern Confederacy--that and nothin' short of it. Well, I stood it jest as long as I natchelly could--and that wasn't very long, neither, lemme tell you, gentlemen.” “Then whut?” inquired Sergeant Bagby, bending forward in his seat. “Then I up with my cheer and chunked it right through their dad-burned, lyin' sheet--that's whut I done! I busted a big hole in her right whar there was a smart-alecky Yankee colonel sailin' acrost on a horse. I says: 'Here's a few reinforcements frum the free state of Georgia!' And I let him have it with the cheer, kefrblim! That there battle broke up right then and there. And that's how I come to go to the calaboose.” Mr. Bloomfield, now rigidly erect, and with no grin on his face, opened his lips to say something; but Sergeant Bagby beat him to it. “Pardner,” he asked incredulously, “did they lock you up jest fur doin' that?” “No,” said the heated Mr. Ezell, “they didn't really lock me up a-tall. But the secont I throwed that cheer there was a lot of yellin' and scrabblin' round, and the lights went up, and the string band quit playin' its piece and here come a-runnin' an uppidy-lookin' man--he was the one that run the show, I take it--bleatin' out somethin' about me havin' broke up his show and him wantin' damages. He made the mistake of grabbin' holt of me and callin' me a name that I don't purpose to have nobody usin' on me. He wanted damages. Well, right there he got 'em!” He raised a bony fist, on which the knuckles were all barked and raw, and gazed at it fondly, as though these were most honourable scars. “So then, after that, a couple of them other show people they drug him away frum whar he was layin' on the floor a-yellin',” he went on, “and a town policeman come in and taken me off to the calaboose in a hack, with a crowd followin' 'long behind. But when we got there the gentleman that was runnin' the place--he wore blue clothes and I jedge from his costume and deportment he must 'a' been the town marshal--he listened to whut we-all had to say, and he taken a look at that there showman's busted jaw and sort of grinned to hisse'f; then he said that, seein' as all us old soldiers had the freedom of the city for the time bein', he 'lowed he'd let the whole matter drop right whar it was providin' I'd give him my solemn promise not to go projectin' round no more movin'-picture places endurin' of my stay in their midst. Well, ef they're all like the one I seen to-day it's goin' to be a powerful easy promise fur me to keep--I know that! But that's how I come to miss the doin's this evenin'--I missed my dinner too--and that's how I come to be walkin' way out here all by myse'f.”