he general opinion that their canoe had
been swamped in the freshet and the boys drowned, until a newcomer
asserted that the canoe, with Phil's overcoat still in it, had been
found tied up at the Vine Ridge landing, and that their guns had been
discovered hidden in the leaves at no great distance in the swamp.

Upon hearing this, Mr. Jones could but call to mind his meeting with
the hog-feeder, his strange behavior, and the blood upon the ground,
and he at once jumped to the conclusion that old Jerry had been at
least a party to some foul deed. His suspicions, once made known,
became certainties, and the whole party, hastily mounting their
horses, rode off to the nearest justice, their convictions gaining
ground so rapidly that, ere the house of the justice was reached,
poor, simple old Jerry, the most harmless of God's creatures, had
become in their estimation a villain of the deepest dye.

Upon this identical Sunday morning the old hog-feeder betook himself
to the little plantation church, whose bell, with cracked clamor, gave
warning that preaching was about to begin.

The frosty brightness of the past week had given place to a soft
mist, through whose dimness the pale sunbeams looked sadly upon the
autumnal world; and as the old man, dressed in his Sunday clothes,
plodded along the path, the tiny crickets from beneath the grass sent
up their sad, perpetual dirge.

Men and women, all shining with Sabbath cleanness, came straggling
toward the church, silently and soberly, without the usual
light-hearted laughter, for the trouble at the "great house" was felt
by all the little band. Yet their feelings were not without a mixture
of pleasurable excitement, for all were anticipating with gloomy
satisfaction the lengthy prayers, the groanings, and the head-shakings
upon this mournful day.

The congregation had taken their seats, old Jethro had taken his place
in the pulpit, the long-drawn cadence of the funeral hymn had floated
sadly up to the "great house," when a noise at the door startled the
congregation, who, turning, beheld standing in the door a group of
white men. Among them was the overseer, who, coming forward,
announced that hog-feeder Jerry was to be arrested upon a charge of
murder. "Not that I believe it, men," he said, "but the law must take
its course."

In the meantime two others had approached the old man, who had already
stumbled to his feet, and, while bowing in a dazed kind of way, kept
murmuri