I ain't had a
friend. I've always felt guilty of his death! I've seen him go down a
thousand times, plain as ever you did. Many's the night I've stood on
the other bank of that pool and listened to you, and I tried to throw
myself in to keep from hearing you, but I didn't dare. I knew God would
send me to burn forever, but I'd better done it; for now, He has set the
burning on my body, and every hour it is slowly eating the life out of
me. The doctor says it's a cancer----"
Mrs. Comstock exhaled a long breath. Her grip on the hoe relaxed and her
stature lifted to towering height.
"I didn't know, or care, when I came here, just what I did," she said.
"But my way is beginning to clear. If the guilt of your soul has come
to a head, in a cancer on your body, it looks as if the Almighty didn't
need any of my help in meting out His punishments. I really couldn't fix
up anything to come anywhere near that. If you are going to burn until
your life goes out with that sort of fire, you don't owe me anything!"
"Oh, Katharine Comstock!" groaned Elvira Carney, clinging to the fence
for support.
"Looks as if the Bible is right when it says, 'The wages of sin is
death,' doesn't it?" asked Mrs. Comstock. "Instead of doing a woman's
work in life, you chose the smile of invitation, and the dress of
unearned cloth. Now you tell me you are marked to burn to death with the
unquenchable fire. And him! It was shorter with him, but let me tell you
he got his share! He left me with an untruth on his lips, for he told
me he was going to take his violin to Onabasha for a new key, when he
carried it to you.
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