send the boy up here."

So that is how Pupkin came to Mariposa. And if, when he got there,
his father's friend gave no sign, and treated the boy with roughness
and incivility, that may have been, for all I know, a continuation of
the "tanning" process of the Maritime people.

Did I mention that the Pepperleigh family, generations ago, had taken
up land near the Aroostook, and that it was from there the judge's
father came to Tecumseh township? Perhaps not, but it doesn't matter.

But surely after such reminiscences as these the awful things that
are impending over Mr. Pupkin must be kept for another chapter.



NINE

The Mariposa Bank Mystery

Suicide is a thing that ought not to be committed without very
careful thought. It often involves serious consequences, and in some
cases brings pain to others than oneself.

I don't say that there is no justification for it. There often is.
Anybody who has listened to certain kinds of music, or read certain
kinds of poetry, or heard certain kinds of performances upon the
concertina, will admit that there are some lives which ought not to
be continued, and that even suicide has its brighter aspects.