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"An' so whilst Eveliny runs out a-screamin', 'He's dead! he's dead! ye hev shot him dead! we-uns make no doubt but he is dead, an' load up agin, lest his frien's mought rush in on we-uns whilst we hedn't no use o' our shootin'-irons. An' suddint ye can't hear nuthin' but jes' a owel hoot-in' in the woods, or old Pa'son Bates's dogs a-howlin' acrost the Cove.
"Waal, don't do it right now," said his wife, trying to laugh, yet vaguely frightened by his vehemence. "Eveliny," he cried, springing to his feet, "I be a-goin' ter tell ye all 'bout'n it. I jes called on the cheerman fur the law agin him."
He threw himself into his chair with a heavy sigh, and desisted for a time from the unaccustomed duty of clearing away the dishes after supper. "An' 'ain't ye got the gumption ter sense what Eveliny sot the candle in the winder fur?" his brother Timothy demanded, abruptly "ez a sign ter that thar durned Abs'lom Kittredge."
"Agin dad! the law!" Her voice dropped as she contemplated aghast this terrible unapprehended force brought to oppress old Joel Quim-bey; she felt a sudden poignant pang for his forlorn and lonely estate. "Never mind, never mind, Eveliny," Absalom said, hastily, repenting of his frantic candor and seeking to soothe her. "I will mind," she said, sternly. "What hev ye done ter dad?"
An' we go out with a lantern, an' thar's jes' a pool o' blood in the dooryard, an' bloody tracks down ter the laurel." "Eveliny gone!" cried the old man, smiting his hands together; "my leetle darter! The only one ez never gin me enny trouble. I couldn't hev made out ter put up with this hyar worl' no longer when my wife died ef it hedn't been fur Eveliny.
He looked absently out of the nearest window at the neighboring dwelling a little frame-house with a green yard; a well-sweep was defined against the gray sky, and about the curb a file of geese followed with swaying gait the wise old gander. "What a hand for fow-els Eveliny war!" he muttered to himself; "an' she hed luck with sech critters."
I tell a bushel o' 'em a day, Eveliny!" He wagged his head in an anxious affectation of mirth. "Why'n't ye gin dad them messages ez Abs'lom gin ye from me?" Joe received this in blank amaze; then, with sudden comprehension, his lower jaw dropped. He looked at her with a plea for pity in his eyes. And yet his ready tact strove to reassert itself. "I mus' hev furgot 'em," he faltered.
"Laws-a-massy, boys," he said, tremulously, to his triumphant sons, when the result was announced, the excited flush on his thin old face suffusing his hollow veinous temples, and rising into his fine white hair, "how glad Eveliny would hev been ef ef " He was about to say if she had lived, for he often spoke of her as if she were dead.
"An' yit he jes sot underfoot, 'mongst the cat an' the dogs, jes ez humble!" said Stephen. "I'd git him back even ef he warn't no kin ter me, Eveliny," declared Tim, and he spoke advisedly, remembering that the youth was a Kittredge. Still Evelina said not a word. All that night she silently walked the puncheon floor, while the rest of the household slept.
He had a nervy grip, but no variation; he always tuk holt the same way." "Tears like ter me ez 'twar a fust-rate time ter fetch out the rifles again," remarked Tim, "this mornin', when old Pa'son Bates kem up hyar an' 'lowed ez he hed married Eveliny ter Abs'lom Kittredge on his death-bed; 'So be, pa'son, I say.
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