rite to him. She ran down to
the gate and through it. Already the blizzard had covered his
footprints.

VII

GIVE A DOG A BAD NAME

The passing of Joseph from Canaan was complete. It was an evanishment
for which there was neither sackcloth nor surprise; and though there
came no news of him it cannot be said that Canaan did not hear of him,
for surely it could hear itself talk. The death of Jonas Tabor and
young Louden's crime and flight incited high doings in the "National
House" windows; many days the sages lingered with the broken meats of
morals left over from the banquet of gossip. But, after all, it is
with the ladies of a community that reputations finally rest, and the
matrons of Canaan had long ago made Joe's exceedingly uncertain. Now
they made it certain.

They did not fail of assistance. The most powerful influence in the
town was ponderously corroborative: Martin Pike, who stood for all that
was respectable and financial, who passed the plate o' Sundays, who
held the fortunes of the town in his left hand, who was trustee for the
widow and orphan,--Martin Pike, patron of all worthy charities, courted
by ministers, feared by the wicked and idle, revered by the
good,--Judge Martin Pike never referred to the runaway save in the
accents of an august doomster. His testimony settled it.

In time the precise nature of the fugitive's sins was distorted in
report and grew vague; it was recalled that he had done dread things;
he became a tradition, a legend, and a warning to the young; a Richard
in the bush to frighten colts. He was preached at boys caught playing
marbles "for keeps": "Do you want to grow up like Joe Louden?" The
very name became a darkling threat, and children of the town would have
run had one called suddenly, "HERE COMES JOE LOUDEN!" Thus does the
evil men do live after them, and the ill-fame of the unrighteous
increase when they are sped!

Very little of Joseph's adventures and occupations during the time of
his wandering is revealed to us; he always had an unwilling memory for
pain and was not afterwards wont to speak of those years which cut the
hard lines in his face. The first account of him to reach Canaan came
as directly to the windows of the "National House" as Mr. Arp,
hastening thither from the station, satchel in hand, could bring it.

This was on a September morning, two years after the flight, and Eskew,
it appears, had been to the State Fair and had beheld man