"Never heard of it before--tell me about it."

     "Well," says Buck, "a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man's brother kills HIM; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the COUSINS chip in--and by and by everybody's killed off, and there ain't no more feud. But it's kind of slow, and takes a long time."

     "Has this one been going on long, Buck?"

     "Well, I should RECKON! It started thirty year ago, or som'ers along there. There was trouble 'bout something, and then a lawsuit to settle it; and the suit went agin one of the men, and so he up and shot the man that won the suit--which he would naturally do, of course. Anybody would."

     "What was the trouble about, Buck?--land?"

     "I reckon maybe--I don't know."

     "Well, who done the shooting? Was it a Grangerford or a Shepherdson?"

     "Laws, how do I know? It was so long ago."

     "Don't anybody know?"

     "Oh, yes, pa knows, I reckon, and some of the other old people; but they don't know now what the row was about in the first place."

     "Has there been many killed, Buck?"