It was in the road right in front of
the field where I was ploughing, so I saw it all. Bessie Townsend, on
her little gray mare, came tearin' down the Townsend Hill like mad.
"Jimmy had stopped ter speak ter me, at the fence, but the next minute
he was off like a shot up the road. He ran an' made a flyin' leap, an' I
saw the mare rear and plunge. Then beast and man came down together, and
I saw Bessie slide to the ground, landin' on her feet.
"When I got there Bessie Townsend was sittin' on the ground, with
Jimmy's head in her arms, which I thought uncommon good of her, seein'
the mortification he'd caused her. But when I saw the look in her eyes,
an' in his as he opened them an' gazed up at her, I reckoned there might
be more ter that love-story than most folks knew. What he said ter her
then I don't know, but ter me he said jest four words, 'Don't--tell--
the--folks,' an' I didn't rightly understand jest then what he meant,
for surely an accident like that couldn't be kept unbeknownst. The next
minute he fell back unconscious.
"It was a bad business all around, an' from the very first there wan't
no hope. In a week 'twas over, an' we laid poor Jimmy away. Two days
after the funeral Sam come ter me with a letter.
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