mbling in
the cover of his beard, murmured again: "Yes?"

"'Twas in the spring, 'bout now as 't might be, or a little
later--blossom time--an' we 'ad one o' they young college gentlemen
stayin' at the farm-nice feller tu, with 'is 'ead in the air. I liked
'e very well, an' I never see nothin' between 'em, but to my thinkin'
'e turned the maid's fancy." The old man took the pipe out of his mouth,
spat, and went on:

"Yu see, 'e went away sudden one day, an' never come back. They got 'is
knapsack and bits o' things down there still. That's what stuck in my
mind--'is never sendin' for 'em. 'Is name was Ashes, or somethen' like
that."

"Yes?" said Ashurst once more.

The old man licked his lips.

"'Er never said nothin', but from that day 'er went kind of dazed
lukin'; didn'seem rightly therr at all. I never knu a'uman creature
so changed in me life--never. There was another young feller at the
farm--Joe Biddaford 'is name wer', that was praaperly sweet on 'er, tu;
I guess 'e used to plague 'er wi 'is attentions. She got to luke quite
wild. I'd zee her sometimes of an avenin' when I was bringin' up the
calves; ther' she'd stand in th' orchard, under the big apple tree,
lukin' straight before 'er. 'Well,' I used t'think, 'I dunno what 'tes
that's the matter wi' yu, but yu'm lukin' pittiful, that yu be!'"

The old man refit his pipe, and sucked at it reflectively.

"Yes?" said Ashurst.

"I remembers one day I said to 'er: 'What's the matter, Megan?'--'er
name was Megan David, she come from Wales same as 'er aunt, ol' Missis
Narracombe. 'Yu'm frettin' about somethin'. I says. 'No, Jim,' she says,
'I'm not frettin'.' 'Yes, yu be!' I says. 'No,' she says, and to tears
cam' rollin' out. 'Yu'm cryin'--what's that, then?' I says. She putts
'er 'and over 'er 'eart: 'It 'urts me,' she says; 'but 'twill sune be
better,' she says. 'But if anything shude 'appen to me, Jim, I wants
to be burried under this 'ere apple tree.' I laughed. 'What's goin' to
'appen to yu?' I says; 'don't 'ee be fulish.' 'No,' she says, 'I won't
be fulish.' Well, I know what maids are, an' I never thought no more
about et, till two days arter that, 'bout six in the avenin' I was
comin' up wi' the calves, when I see somethin' dark lyin' in the strame,
close to that big apple tree. I says to meself: 'Is that a pig-funny
place for a pig to get to!' an' I goes up to et, an' I see what 'twas."

The old man stopped; his eyes, turned upward, had a bright, su