1 Some thought it would be good to kill the families of boys that told the secrets.
2 The two boys was squatting back to back behind the pile, so they could watch both ways.
3 One of the boys was Buck, and the other was a slim young chap about nineteen years old.
4 We went down the hill and found Jo Harper and Ben Rogers, and two or three more of the boys, hid in the old tanyard.
5 They started riding towards the store; then up gets one of the boys, draws a steady bead over the wood-rank, and drops one of them out of his saddle.
6 All the men jumped off of their horses and grabbed the hurt one and started to carry him to the store; and that minute the two boys started on the run.
7 Ben Rogers said he couldn't get out much, only Sundays, and so he wanted to begin next Sunday; but all the boys said it would be wicked to do it on Sunday, and that settled the thing.
8 They gained on the boys, but it didn't do no good, the boys had too good a start; they got to the woodpile that was in front of my tree, and slipped in behind it, and so they had the bulge on the men again.
9 And behind the woman comes a little nigger girl and two little nigger boys without anything on but tow-linen shirts, and they hung on to their mother's gown, and peeped out from behind her at me, bashful, the way they always do.
10 Children was heeling it ahead of the mob, screaming and trying to get out of the way; and every window along the road was full of women's heads, and there was nigger boys in every tree, and bucks and wenches looking over every fence; and as soon as the mob would get nearly to them they would break and skaddle back out of reach.