"For the land sakes don't do that again, Zoeth," he protested. "That's
the tenth 'Ah hum' you've cast loose in a mile. I know we're bound to a
funeral but there ain't no need of tollin' the bell all the way. I don't
like it and I don't think Marcellus would neither, if he could hear
you."

"Perhaps he can hear us, Shadrach," suggested his companion, mildly.
"Perhaps he's here with us now; who can tell?"

"Humph! Well, if he is then I KNOW he don't like it. Marcellus never
made any fuss whatever happened, and he wouldn't make any at his own
funeral no more than at anybody else's. That wasn't his way. Say nothin'
and keep her on the course, that was Marcellus. I swan I can hardly make
it seem possible that he's gone!"

"Neither can I, Shadrach. And to think that you and me, his old partners
and lifelong chums as you might say, hadn't seen nor spoken to him
for over two years. It makes me feel bad. Bad and sort of
conscience-struck."

"I know; so it does me, in a way. And yet it wasn't our fault, Zoeth.
You know as well as I do that Marcellus didn't want to see us. We was
over to see him last and he scarcely said a word while we was there.
You and me did all the talkin' and he just set and looked at us--when
he wasn't lookin' at the floor. I never saw such a change in a man. We
asked--yes, by fire, we fairly begged him to come and stay with us for
a spell, but he never did. Now it ain't no further from Ostable to South
Harniss than it is from South Harniss to Ostable. If he'd wanted to come
he could; if he'd wanted to see us he could. We went to see him,
didn't we; and WE had a store and a business to leave. He ain't had any