n't.

"I found out where the gal had gone an' I follered her--yis I did--found
her in the poorhouse way over on Pussley Hill--uh huh! She jes' put her
arms 'round my neck an' cried an' cried. I guess 'twas 'cause I looked
kind o' friendly--uh huh! I tol' her she should come right over to our
house an' stay jest as long as she wanted to as soon as she got
well--yis, sir, I did.

"She was sick all summer long--kind o' out o' her head, ye know, an' I
used to go over hossback an' take things fer her to eat. An' one day
when I was over there they was wonderin' what they was goin' to do with
her little baby. I took it in my arms an' I'll be gol dummed if it
didn't grab hold o' my nose an' hang on like a puppy to a root. When
they tried to take it away it grabbed its fingers into my whiskers an'
hollered like a panther--yis, sir. Wal, ye know I jes' fetched that
little baby boy home in my arms, ay uh! My wife scolded me like Sam
Hill--yis, sir--she had five of her own. I tol' her I was goin' to take
it back in a day er two but after it had been in the house three days ye
couldn't 'a' pulled it away from her with a windlass.

"We brought him up an' he was alwuss a good boy. We called him
Enoch--Enoch Rone--did ye ever hear the name?"

"'No.'

"I didn't think 'twas likely but I'm alwuss hopin'.

"Early that fall Kate got better an' left the poorhouse afoot. Went away
somewheres--nobody knew where. Some said she'd crossed the lake an' gone
away over into York State, some said she'd drowned herself. By'm by we
heard that she'd gone way over into St. Lawrence County where Silas
Wright lives an' where young Grimshaw had settled down after he got
married.

"Wal, 'bout five year ago the squire buried his second wife--there 'tis
over in there back o' Kate's with the little speckled angel on it.
Nobody had seen the squire outside o' his house for years until the
funeral--he was crippled so with rheumatiz. After that he lived all
'lone in the big house with ol' Tom Linney an' his wife, who've worked
there fer 'bout forty year, I guess.

"Wal, sir, fust we knew Kate was there in the house livin' with her
father. We wouldn't 'a' knowed it, then, if it hadn't been that Tom
Linney come over one day an' said he guessed the ol' squire wanted to
see me--no, sir, we wouldn't--fer the squire ain't sociable an' the
neighbors never darken his door. She must 'a' come in the night, jest as
she went--nobody see her go an' nobody see her come