had ought to deal."

"He hasn't been doing anything wrong!" Charlotte cried out again;
"you ought to be ashamed of yourself talking so about him, when
you're his mother!"

Deborah Thayer never glanced at Charlotte. She kept her eyes fixed
upon Cephas. "What has he done?" she repeated.

"I guess he didn't do much of anything," Mrs. Barnard murmured,
feebly; but Deborah did not seem to hear her.

Cephas opened his mouth as if perforce. "Well," he said, slowly, "we
got to talkin'--"

"Talkin' about what?"

"About the 'lection. I think, accordin' to my reasonin', that what we
eat had a good deal to do with it."

"What?"

"I think if you'd kept your family on less meat, and given 'em more
garden-stuff to eat Barney wouldn't have been so up an' comin'. It's
what he's eat that's made him what he is."

Deborah stared at Cephas in stern amazement. "You're tryin' to make
out, as near as I can tell," said she, "that whatever my son has done
wrong is due to what he's eat, and not to original sin. I knew you
had queer ideas, Cephas Barnard, but I didn't know you wa'n't sound