You'll make yourself sick, you know.
Just don't tell any more, please."
She took her hand away and looked at him bravely.
"There isn't any more to tell," she said. "I have told you this
because I realized that Barbara had told you enough to make you
imagine everything that was bad concerning my brother. And he is
not bad, Mr. Winslow. He did a wrong thing, but I know--I KNOW he
did not mean deliberately to steal. If that man he worked for had
been--if he had been-- But there, he was what he was. He said
thieves should be punished, and if they were punished when they
were young, so much the better, because it might be a warning and
keep them honest as they grew older. He told me that, Mr. Winslow,
when I pleaded with him not to make Charles' disgrace public and
not to wreck the boy's life. That was what he told me then. And
they say," she added, bitterly, "that he prides himself upon being
a staunch supporter of the church."
Jed let go of his knee with one hand in order to rub his chin.
"I have queer notions, I cal'late," he drawled. "If they wasn't
queer they wouldn't be mine, I suppose. If I was--er--as you might
say, first mate of all creation I'd put some church folks in jail
and a good many jail folks in church. Seems's if the swap would be
a help to both sides. . . . I--I hope you don't think I'm--er--
unfeelin', jokin', when you're in such worry and trouble," he
added, anxiously.
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