She sobbed aloud for a moment. Then ensued an interval of silence.
Suddenly the interest of the subject seemed to lay hold upon her, and
she began to speak very rapidly, lifting her white tear-stained face,
and pushing her bonnet back on her rough curling auburn hair:--

"I war a-blackberryin', thar bein' only a few lef' yit, an' I went fur
an' furder yit from home; an' ez I kem out'n the woods over yon," half
rising, and pointing with a free gesture, "I viewed--or yit I _'lowed_
I viewed--the witch-face through a bunch o' honey locust, the leaves
bein' drapped a'ready, they bein' always the fust o' the year ter git
bare. An' stiddier leavin' it be, I sot my bucket o' berries at the
foot o' a tree', an started down the slope todes the bluff, ter make
sure an' view it clar o' the trees." The girl paused, her eyes
widening, her voice faltering, her breath coming fast. "An' goin'
swift, some hawgs, stray, half grown, 'bout twenty shoats feedin' in
the woods--my rustlin' in the bushes skeered 'em I reckon--they sot
out to run, possessed by the devil, like them the Scriptur' tells
about." She paused again, panting, her hand to her heart.

The disaffected juryman turned to one side, recrossing his legs, and
spitting disparagingly on the ground. "She can't swear them hawgs war
possessed by the devil," he said in a low tone to his next neighbor.

"Oh, why not," exclaimed the girl, "when we know so many men air
possessed by the devil,--why not them shoats, bein' jes' without
clothes, an' without the gift o' speech to mark the diff'unce!"

She paused again, and the coroner, standing a trifle back of her
chair, shook his head at the obstructive juryman, and asked her in a
commonplace voice what the hogs had to do with it.

"That's what I wanter know!" she cried, half turning in her chair to
look up at him. "I started 'em, an' I be at the bottom o' it all, ef
it's like I think,--_me_, yearnin' ter look at the old witch-face! The
hawgs run through the woods like fire on dry grass, an' I be 'feared
they skeered the stranger man's horse--he had none whenst I seen him,
though. I hearn loud talkin', or hollerin', a cornsiderable piece off,
an' then gallopin' hoofs"--

"More horses than one, do you think?" demanded the coroner.

"Oh, how kin I swear to that? I seen none. Fur when I got thar, this
man war lyin' in the herder's trail, bruised and bloody--oh, like ye
see--an' his eyes opened; an' he gin a sort o' gasp whenst I tuk his