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Sir".  There were at that time two cottonrows between me and him.  He was standing with the hoe in his right hand.

I had a cotton stalk in my hand.  I raised up my horse, and the horse stepped over one cotton row, and at this movement the cottonstalk in my hand was necessarily raised also.  Sam moved back, jerked up his hoe with both hands and braced himself as with the intention to strike - I drew my pistol against him and asked if he would presume to raise his hoe to strike me.  There was a considerable pause before Sam replied, and he still held his hoe in a threatening manner.  I told him to drop his hoe or I would shoot him.

He hesitated a moment and then dropped his hoe.  I then told him he could not stay on my place [[strikethrough]] on [[/strikethrough]] under these circumstances, - that I could not have any more dealings