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Last of the Great Scouts : the life story of Col. William F. Cody, "Buffalo Bill" as told by his sister by Helen Cody Wetmore
page 49 of 303 (16%)
"Now, Will, you call Turk off, and round up those chickens right away."

"Catch meself!" And Will would dance around and tease so he nearly drove
us all distracted. It was with the greatest difficulty that mother could
finally prevail upon him to round up the chickens. That done, he would
tie up the pump-handle, milk the cows dry, strew the path to the gate
with burrs and thistles, and stick up a sign, "Thorney is the path and
stickery the way that leedith unto the kingdom of heaven. Amen!"

Then when mother had put a nice clean valance, freshly starched and
ruffled, around the big four-poster bed in the sitting-room, Will would
daub it up with smearcase, and just before the preachers arrived, sneak
in under it, and wait for prayers.

Mother always desired us to file in quietly, but we couldn't pass the
bed without our legs being pinched; so we "hollered," but were afraid to
tell mother the reason before the ministers. We had to bear it, but we
snickered ourselves when the man Will called "Elder Green Persimmon,"
because when he prayed his mouth went inside out, came mincing into
the room, and as he passed the valance and got a pinch, jerked out a
sour-grape sneeze:

"Mercy on us! I thought I was bitten by that fierce dog of yours, Mrs.
Cody; but it must have been a burr."

Then the "experiences" would begin. Will always listened quietly,
until the folks began telling how wicked they had been before they got
religion; then he would burst in with a vigorous "Amen!"

The elders did not know Will's voice; so they would get warmed up by
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