e spot."

"Yes, we heard the report," Henley made answer, "but we didn't know
whether to believe it or not. I reckon you got it plumb straight?"

"Straight as a shingle," Wrinkle said, sincerely. "Het not only told me,
but so did the lawyer, a big-bellied chap from Atlanta, in broadcloth
and headlight buttons in his shirt. Huh! I reckon you think you know Het
purty well, Alf; but you don't. I don't, an' my wife don't. I reckon her
Maker sometimes wonders what she'll do in a pinch. I 'lowed she was one
woman that 'u'd like to fall heir to a pile o' cash, but they say when
Ben sent for her to come to his bed whar the lawyer was ready with pen
and ink and paper, an' Ben told her he was goin' to put her in entire
charge of his effects, lock, stock, an' barrel--they say when she heard
that she begun to wail an' take on at such a rate that they couldn't git
her to talk business at all. They had to rub 'er down an' bathe 'er feet
in hot mustard-water, an' it was all they could do to keep 'er from
crossin' over, hand in hand, with Ben, an' leavin' the boodle to anybody
that 'u'd pick it up. The Lord only knows who would have got the swag in
that case, but comin' into a fortune don't kill often, an' Het will
manage somehow. She et a square meal this mornin' 'fore I started,
pokin' it up under her veil-like, in purty good chunks, an' give orders
to the niggers like a captain on a ship ridin' high waves. Thar always
was only one thing in this life that pestered that woman, an' that was
responsibility to the dead. I reckon she thinks the livin' can tote
the'r own loads. Be that as it may, she's goin' to see that Ben's
shebang an' all pertainin' to it is run jest to a gnat's heel like he
would run it if he was alive. But comin' down to brass tacks, she owes
her good luck to exactly what most folks thought was a weak p'int in
'er. They say Ben was so all-fired mad at the gal that kicked 'im to
death that he said all women was unfaithful, an' he picked Het out for
reward because she had showed she was one amongst a million. Then, too,
Het kept tellin' 'im he was good for another forty years, while the rest
of his kin was sayin' to his teeth that they was sorry he had to go an
hopin' that he had his papers in order. If I could get head or tail of
the mystery of life, I might be able to tell whether Het was actin' a
part or not. I think she simply done it so well that she believed it;
anyways, Ben liked it, an' spent his last hours an'