been
run over by the cars up to Jersey City.

"I say it was just before Thanksgivin'," pipes up the old lady. "I know,
'cause I was into the butcher's askin' what turkeys would be likely to
fetch, when Doc Brewswater drops in and says: 'Mornin', Eph. Heard about
Hen Dorsett?' And then he told about him fallin' under the cars. So it
_must_ have been just afore Thanksgivin'."

"Thanksgivin' your grandmother!" growls the old man. "It was in March,
along the second week, I should say, because the day I heard of it was
just after school election. March of '83, that's when it was."

"Eighty-three!" squeals the old lady. "Are you losin' your mind
altogether? It was '85, the year Jimmy cut his hand so bad at the
sawmill."

"Jimmy wasn't workin' at the mill that year," raps back the old man. "He
was tongin' oysters that fall, 'cause he didn't hear a word about Hen
until the next Friday night, when I told him myself. Hen was killed on a
Monday."

"It was on a Saturday or I'm a lunatic," snaps the old lady.

Well, they kept on pilin' up evidence, each one makin' the other out to
be a fool, or a liar, or both, until the old man says: "See here,
Maria, I'm goin' up the street and ask Ase Horner when it was that Hen
Dorsett was killed. Ase knows, for he was the one Mrs. Dorsett got to go
up after Hen."

"Yes, and he'll tell you it was just before Thanksgivin' of '85, so
what's the use?" says the old lady.

"We'll see what he says," growls the old man, and I heard him strike a
light and get into his shoes.

"Who're you bettin' on?" says Leonidas.

"Gee!" says I. "Are you awake, too? I thought you was asleep an hour
ago."

"I was," says he, "but when this Hen Dorsett debate breaks loose I came
back to earth. I'll gamble that the old woman's right."

"The old man's mighty positive," says I. "Wonder how long it'll be
before we get the returns?"

"Perhaps half an hour," says Leonidas. "He'll have to thrash it all out
with Ase before he starts back. We might as well sit up and wait. Anyway
I want to see which gets the best of it."

"Let's have a smoke, then," says I.

"Why not go along with the old man?" says Leonidas. "If he finds he's
wrong he may come back and lie about it."

Well, it _was_ a fool thing to do, when you think about it, but somehow
Leonidas had a way of lookin' at things that was different from other
folks. He didn't know any more about that there Hen Dorsett than I did,
but he seemed just as keen as