... He listened quiet-like, and
then he laughed. That's what Abner done, he laughed.... When I heard he
was arrested f'r the killin', I laughed.... Back in Bible times, if one
of a family sinned, God wiped out the whole of the kin...."
Scattergood was thoughtful. "Yes," he said, "Abner would have laughed.
That was like Abner.... Now I calc'late you and Mis' Briggs better fix
up and drive to town with me.... Don't be afeard. Right'll be done, and
there hain't no more sufferin' fallin' to your share, ... You been doin'
God's rough work, Jed, and I don't calc'late he figgers to have you
punished f'r it...."
Next morning at ten by the clock the coroner with his jury held inquest
over the body of Asa Levens, and over that body Jed Briggs and Lindy,
his wife, told their story under oath to ears that credited the truth of
their words because they knew the man of whom those words were spoken.
The jury deliberated briefly. Its verdict was in these words:
"We find that Asa Levens came to his death by act of God, and that there
are found no reasons for further investigation into this matter."
And so it stands in the imperishable records of the township; legal
authority recognized the right of Deity to utilize a human being for his
rougher sort of work.
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