might ha' burnt him to the stake, and he'd stick to it he liked it
better'n hanging and al'ays meant to die that way. There's an awful
bad streak in them Thachers, an' you know it as well as I do. I expect
there'll be bad and good Thachers to the end o' time. I'm glad for the
old lady's sake that John ain't one o' the drinkin' ones. Ad'line'll
give no favors to her husband's folks, nor take none. There's plenty
o' wrongs to both sides, but as I view it, the longer he'd lived the
worse 't would been for him. She was a well made, pretty lookin' girl,
but I tell ye 't was like setting a laylock bush to grow beside an
ellum tree, and expecting of 'em to keep together. They wa'n't mates.
He'd had a different fetchin' up, and he _was_ different, and I wa'n't
surprised when I come to see how things had turned out,--I believe I
shall have to set the door open a half a minute, 't is gettin'
dreadful"--but there was a sudden flurry outside, and the sound of
heavy footsteps, the bark of the startled cur, who was growing very
old and a little deaf, and Mrs. Martin burst into the room and sank
into the nearest chair, to gather a little breath before she could
tell her errand. "For God's sake what's happened?" cried the men.

They presented a picture of mingled comfort and misery at which Mrs.
Martin would have first laughed and then scolded at any other time.
The two honest red faces were well back toward the farther side of the
room from the fire, which still held its own; it was growing toward
low tide in the cider jug and its attendant mugs, and the pipes were
lying idle. The mistress of the old farm-house did not fail to notice
that high treason had been committed during her short absence, but she
made no comment upon the fireplace nor on anything else, and gasped as
soon as she could that one of the men must go right up to the Corners
for the doctor and hurry back with him, for't was a case of life and
death.