Sketches New and Old


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"There, there--that will do. I know I am all right now, because you have  
read it just as I did, word, for word. But, stranger, when I first read  
it this morning, I said to myself, I never, never believed it before,  
notwithstanding my friends kept me under watch so strict, but now I  
believe I am crazy; and with that I fetched a howl that you might have  
heard two miles, and started out to kill somebody--because, you know,  
I knew it would come to that sooner or later, and so I might as well  
begin. I read one of them paragraphs over again, so as to be certain,  
and then I burned my house down and started. I have crippled several  
people, and have got one fellow up a tree, where I can get him if I want  
him. But I thought I would call in here as I passed along and make the  
thing perfectly certain; and now it is certain, and I tell you it is  
lucky for the chap that is in the tree. I should have killed him sure,  
as I went back. Good-by, sir, good-by; you have taken a great load off  
my mind. My reason has stood the strain of one of your agricultural  
articles, and I know that nothing can ever unseat it now. Good-by, sir."  
I felt a little uncomfortable about the cripplings and arsons this person  
had been entertaining himself with, for I could not help feeling remotely  
accessory to them. But these thoughts were quickly banished, for the  
regular editor walked in! [I thought to myself, Now if you had gone to  
Egypt as I recommended you to, I might have had a chance to get my hand  
in; but you wouldn't do it, and here you are. I sort of expected you.]  
The editor was looking sad and perplexed and dejected.  
297  


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