to me how sentiments goes in herds an' droves, same as weather an'
things like that. "'Oneday you rolls out in the mornin',' this old
gent declar's, `an' thar you reads how everybody commits sooicide.
Then some other day it's murder, then robbery, an' ag'in, the whole
round-up goes to holdin' them church meetin's an' gettin' religion.
Them's waves; moral epidemics,' he says.

"Which this don't look so egreegious none as a statement, neither,
an' so after pow-wowin' a lot, all complacent an' genial, I tells
the old gent he's got a good game, an' I thinks myse'f his system
has p'ints. At this, he admits he's flattered; an' then, as we're
gettin' to the ends of our lariats, we tips our sombreros to each
other an' lets it go at that. To-morry he's goin' to confer on me
his book; which I means to read it, an' then I'll savey more about
his little play.

"But," continued my friend, warm with his new philosophy, "this yere
is all preelim'nary, an' brings me back to what I remarks at the
jump; that what that old gent urges recalls this dumb an' deef man
incident; which it sort o' backs his play. It's a time when a passel
of us gets overcome by waves of sentiment that a-way, an' not only
turns a hoss-thief loose entire, after the felon's done been run
down, but Boggs waxes that sloppy he lavishes a hoss an' saddle onto
him; likewise sympathy, an' wishes him luck.

"The whole racket's that onnacheral I never does quit wonderin'
about it; but now this old science sharp expounds his theory of
'moral epidemics,' it gets cl'ared up in my mind, an' I reckons, as
he says, it's shorely one of them waves.