Calculate I'd like to know the truth myself. Had a look at
Asa's face a-layin' there by the road, and it interested me."
"Did you see that?" Mary asked, with sudden excitement.
"What?" asked Scattergood, curiously.
"The mark.... Sometimes it showed plain. It was a mark put on Asa
Levens's face as a warning to folks that God mistrusted him."
"When he was dead it was different," said Scattergood, with solemnity.
"It said he had r'iled God past endurance."
Mary nodded. She comprehended. "The truth will do," she said,
confidently.
"Did Abner mention last Tuesday to you?" Scattergood asked.
"No."
"Where was Asa Levens last Tuesday? Do you know, Mary?"
"No."
"Why did Abner say to Asa yesterday, 'It's not on account of her, it's
on account of _her_'?"
"I don't know."
"G'-by, Mary. G'-by." It was so Scattergood always ended a conversation,
abruptly, but as one became accustomed to it it was neither abrupt nor
discourteous.
"Thank you," said Mary, and she went away obediently.
As the afternoon was stretching toward evening, Scattergood sauntered
into Sheriff Ulysses Watts's barn.
"Who's feedin' and waterin' Asa Levens's stock?" he asked.
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