red to be best.

But this man disremembered that,--or, worse still, p'r'aps he didn't
'zackly believe it. So he went along all scrunched down with that hefty
bundle other folks had piled up on him, not scoldin' nor complainin'
nor gittin' mad about it, but jest thinkin' it had got to be, and nobody
could help him. But ye see it hadn't got to be, and somebody could 'a'
helped him.

And then bimeby along come a man that had sech a hefty, hefty bundle!
'Twas right 'tween his shoulders, and it sort o' scrooched him down, and
it hurt him in his back and in his feelin's. The Head Man had put that
bundle on the man hisself when he was a little bit of a feller. He'd
made it out o' flesh and skin and things. It was jest ezackly like the
man's body, so 't when it ached he ached hisself. And he'd had to carry
that thing about all his born days.

I don't know why the Head Man done it, I'm sure, but I know how good and
pleasant he was, and how he liked his folks and meant well to 'em, and
how he knowed jest what oughter be and what hadn't oughter be, so 't
stands to reason he'd done this thing a-purpose, and not careless like,
and he hadn't made no mistake.

I've guessed a lot o' reasons why he done it. Mebbe he see the man
wouldn't 'a' done so well without the bundle,--might 'a' run off, 'way,
'way off from the Head Man and the work he had to do. Or, ag'in, p'r'aps
he wanted to make a 'zample of the man, and show folks how patient and
nice a body could be, even though he had a big, hefty bundle to carry
all his born days, one made out o' flesh and skin and things, and that
hurt dreadful.

But my other guess is the one I b'leeve in most,--that the Head Man done
it to scrooch him down, so's he'd take notice o' little teenty things,
down below, that most folks never see, things that needed him to watch
'em, and do for 'em, and tell about 'em. That's my fav'rite guess. 'Tany
rate, the Head Man done right,--I'm cert'in sure o' that.

And it _had_ made the man nicer, and pleasanter spoken, and kinder to
folks, and partic'lar to creaturs. It had made him sort o' bend down,
'twas so hefty, and so he'd got to takin' notice o' teenty little things
nobody else scursely'd see,--mites o' posies, and cunnin' little bugs,
and creepin', crawlin' things. He took a heap o' comfort in 'em. And he
told other folks 'bout them little things and their little ways, and
what they was made for, and things they could learn us; and 'twas real
int'resti