I
used to get him warm drinks and things, and try to pull 'im
through, but he was always a-chillin' and a-achin'. If it wasn't
one thing the matter, it was another. I done all I knowed you'd
a-wanted me to, an' the rest of the folks was mighty white to
him, too. I guess they kinder felt how lonesome he was. He
couldn't get no more laughs in the show, so Barker had to put on
another man with him. That kinder hurt him too--I s'pose--an'
showed him the way that things was a-goin'. It was just after
that, he wrote the parson a-tellin' him to never let you come
back. He seemed to a' got an idee in his head that you was
happier where you was. He wouldn't let me tell ye 'bout his
feelin' so rocky, 'cause he thought it might mebbe make you come
back. 'She's diff'runt from us,' he was allus a-sayin'. 'I
never 'spected to keep 'er.' "
Douglas stopped. Polly was waiting, her face white and drawn.
He had not told her of Toby's letter, because with it had come a
request to "say nothin' to the kid."
He felt that Polly was controlling herself with an effort until
he should reach the end of Jim's letter, so he hurried on.
"The parson's promise didn't get to him none too quick," he read.
"That seemed to be what he was waitin' for.
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