run a splinter into a feller's hand when he's loggin' or a thorn into
yer foot when ye're goin' barefooted.

Hit jes made me sick, Uncl' Gabe, hearin' him tell how they
stretched Him out on a cross o' wood, when He'd come down fer
nothin' but to save 'em, 'n' stuck a spear big as a co'n-knife into His
side, 'n' give Him vinegar, 'n' let Him hang thar 'n' die, with His
own mammy a-stand-in' down on the groun' a-cryin' 'n' watchin'
Him. Some folks thar never heerd sech afore. The women was
a-rockin', 'n' ole Granny Day axed right out ef thet tuk place a long
time ago; 'n' the rider said, 'Yes, a long time ago, mos two
thousand years.' Granny was a-cryin', Uncl' Gabe, 'n' she said,
sorter soft, ' Stranger, let's hope that hit hain't so ' ; 'n' the rider
says, But hit air so; n' He fergive em while they was doin' it.'
Thet's whut got me, Uncl' Gabe, 'n' when the woman got to singin',
somethin' kinder broke loose hyeh "-Isom passed his hand over his
thin chest-" 'n' I couldn't git breath. I was mos' afeerd to ride home.
I jes layed at the mill studyin', till I thought my head would bust. I
reckon hit was the spent a-work-in me. Looks like I was mos'
convicted, Uncl' Gabe." His voice trembled and he stopped.
Crump was a-lyin'," he cried, suddenly. "But hit's wuss, Und' Gabe;
hit's wuss! You say a life fer a life in this worl'; the rider says hit's
in the next, 'n' I'm mis'ble, Uncl' Gabe. Ef Rome-I wish Rome was
hyeh," he cried, helplessly. "I don't know whut to do."

The miller rose and limped within the mill, and ran one hand
through the shifting corn. He stood in the doorway, looking long
and perplexedly towards Hazlan; he finally saw, he thought, just
what the lad's trouble was. He could give him some comfort, and
he got his chair and dragged it out to the door across the platform,