is hands again. "'Much study
is a weariness to the flesh.' Arter all, I don't suppose a man'd be no
wiser if he'd read all you've got here. The biggest fool I ever knowed,
was the man that had read the most."

"How did he show his folly?" Mrs. Barclay asked.

"Wall, it's a story. Lois knows. He was dreadfully sot on a little
grandchild he had; his chil'n was all dead, and he had jest this one
left; she was a little girl. And he never left her out o' his sight,
nor she him; until one day he had to go to Boston for some business;
and he couldn't take her; and he said he knowed some harm'd come. Do
you believe in presentiments."

"Sometimes," said Mrs. Barclay.

"How should a man have presentiments o' what's comin'?"

"I cannot answer that."

"No, nor nobody else. It ain't reason. I believe the presentiments
makes the things come."

"Was that the case in this instance?"

"Wall, I don't see how it could. When he come back from Boston, the
little girl was dead; but she was as well as ever when he went away.
Ain't that curious?"

"Certainly; if it is true."

"I'm tellin' you nothin' but the truth. The hull town knows it. 'Tain't
no secret. 'Twas old Mr. Roderick, you know, Lois; lived up yonder on
the road to the ferry. And after he come back from the funeral he shut
himself up in the room where his grandchild had been--and nobody ever
see him no more from that day, 'thout 'twas the folks in the house; and
there warn't many o' them; but he never went out. An' he never went out
for seven years; and at the end o' seven years he _had_ to--there was
money in it--and folks that won't mind nothin' else, they minds Mammon,
you know; so he went out. An' as soon as he was out o' the house, his
women-folks, they made a rush for his room, fur to clean it; for, if
you'll believe me, it hadn't been cleaned all those years; and I expect
'twas in a condition; but the women likes nothin' better; and as they
opened some door or other, of a closet or that, out runs a little white
mouse, and it run clear off; they couldn't catch it any way, and they
tried every way. It was gone, and they were scared, for they knowed the
old gentleman's ways. It wasn't a closet either it was in, but some
piece o' furniture; I'm blessed ef I can remember what they called it.
The mouse was gone, and the women-folks was scared; and to be sure,
when Mr. Roderick come home he went as straight as a line to that there
door where the mouse was; and they say