He stopped short just in time and roared a "Git dap" at the horse. He
had been on the point of saying something which would have been far more
disastrous than his reference to the troubles following marriage. Zoeth
was apparently not curious. To his friend's great relief he did not wait
for the sentence to be finished, nor did he ask embarrassing questions.
Instead he said:

"I wonder what's goin' to become of that child, Mary Lathrop's girl. Who
do you suppose likely will take charge of her?"

"I don't know. I've been wonderin' that myself, Zoeth."

"Kind of a cute little thing, she was, too, as I recollect her. I
presume likely she's grown up consid'ble since. You remember how she set
and looked at us that last time we was over to see Marcellus, Shadrach?"

"Remember? How she looked at ME, you mean! Shall I ever forget it? I'd
just had my hair cut by that new barber, Sim Ellis, that lived here
'long about then, and I told him to cut off the ends. He thought I meant
the other ends, I cal'late, for I went to sleep in the chair, same as I
generally do, and when I woke up my head looked like the main truck of
the old Faraway. All it needed was to have the bald place gilded. I give
you my word that if I hadn't been born with my ears set wing and wing
like a schooner runnin' afore the wind I'd have been smothered when I
put my hat on--nothin' but them ears kept it propped up off my nose.
YOU remember that haircut, Zoeth. Well, all the time you and me was in
Marcellus's settin'-room that stepchild of his just set and looked at my
head. Never took her eyes off it. If she'd said anything 'twouldn't
have been so bad; but she didn't--just looked. I could feel my bald spot