Well, Mary Jane she lit out the back way, I reckon; because nobody see her go. When I struck Susan and the hare-lip, I says:

     "What's the name of them people over on t'other side of the river that you all goes to see sometimes?"

     They says:

     "There's several; but it's the Proctors, mainly."

     "That's the name," I says; "I most forgot it. Well, Miss Mary Jane she told me to tell you she's gone over there in a dreadful hurry--one of them's sick."

     "Which one?"

     "I don't know; leastways, I kinder forget; but I thinks it's--"

     "Sakes alive, I hope it ain't HANNER?"

     "I'm sorry to say it," I says, "but Hanner's the very one."

     "My goodness, and she so well only last week! Is she took bad?"

     "It ain't no name for it. They set up with her all night, Miss Mary Jane said, and they don't think she'll last many hours."

     "Only think of that, now! What's the matter with her?"