sed close to the spot where
they were sitting, and many were the curious glances cast in their
direction. Several women stopped to speak to them, among whom was Mrs.
Wadell, noted all over the parish for her fondness for gossip, as well
as for meddling in the affairs of others.

"So ye feel bad, do ye?" and she fixed her piercing eyes upon Betty's
tear-stained face. "I wouldn't feel bad fer such as him," and she
jerked her thumb toward the grave.

"But I do," Betty protested. "He was good to me, and now he is gone."

"I guess ye'll like him better now that he's gone," Mrs. Wadell
remarked. "I know I should, anyway, if he'd done as handsome by me as
he's done by you."

"Why, what do you mean?" Betty asked in surprise.

"Why, about the money he's left ye. It's a snug sum, so I understand,
and I suppose it'll make ye put on mighty fine airs, so's ye won't
speak to common folks any more."

Lois now became much interested in the words of this garrulous old
woman, and she was anxious to know more, and where she had obtained her
information.

"How did you hear that?" she asked.

"Land sakes, don't ask me sich a question as that, Miss," was the
evasive reply. "How could I begin to tell ye where I hear things, fer
the air is full of all kinds of stories to-day. But I guess it's true
all right."

"I didn't know that Mr. David had made a will. That is a surprise to
me."

"And indeed it is to everybody else, Miss. We didn't think that Crazy
David had anything to leave. Why he was sold as a pauper to Jim Goban
in this very parish about a year ago. But that isn't the only thing
that surprises me."

"What, is there something more?"

"There surely is, Miss. It's reported that he's left a hull lot to
that Randall feller. I guess he knew how to work his cards all right
with the old man. He didn't take an interest in him fer nuthin', oh,
no. People don't generally do sich things these days fer love."

"Mr. Jasper hadn't anything to do with that will," Betty angrily
protested. "He didn't know anything about it, neither did I."

"Oh, you wouldn't know," and the old woman gave a sarcastic chuckle.
"He wouldn't want people to know what he was doin'. He was cute enough
fer that. And then to think that he should kill Crazy David to git his
money. Why the poor old man couldn't have lived much longer, anyway."

"You lie!" and Betty, trembling in every limb, sprang to her feet.
"Mr. Jasper didn't do it. I te