"I don't like to think o' the words he used that night. He was a professin' member, an' yit he swore the awfullest I ever heerd."--Here the man involuntarily raised his hands to his ears, as if to stop them against even the memory of his father's curses.--"I expected every minute he'd 'a' struck me down. I've wished, sence, he _had_: I don't think I could 'a' stood _that_. Howsever, he dragged me home, never lettin' go my collar, till we got into the room where mother was settin' up for us. Then he told _her_, only makin' it ten times harder 'n it really was. Mother always kind o' liked Rachel, 'cause she was mighty handy at sewin' an' quiltin', but she'd no more dared stan' up agin father than a sheep agin a bull-dog. She looked at me pityin'-like, I must say, an' jist begun to cry,--an' I couldn't help cryin' nuther, when I saw how it hurt her. "Well, after that, 't wa'n't no use thinkin' o' Rachel any more. I _had_ to go t' Old Jones's, whether I wanted to or no. I felt mighty mean when I thought o' Rachel, an' was afeard no good 'd come of it; but father jist managed things _his_ way, an' I couldn't help myself. Old Jones had nothin' agin me, for I was a stiddy, hard-workin' feller as there was round,--an' Mary Ann was always as pleasant as could be, _then_;--well, I oughtn't to say nothin' agin her now; she's had a hard life of it, 'longside o' me. Afore long we were bespoke, an' the day set. Father hurried things, when it got that fur. I don't think Rachel knowed anything about it till the day afore the weddin', or mebby the very day. Old Mr. Larrabee was the minister, an' there was only the two families at the house, an' Miss Plankerton,--her that sewed for Mary Ann. I never felt so oneasy in my life, though I tried hard not to show it. "Well, 't was all jist over, an' the kissin' about to begin, when I heerd the house-door bu'st open, suddent. I felt my heart give one jump right up to the root o' my tongue, an' then fall back ag'in, sick an' dead-like.