Dannys Own Story | Page 7

was open when I come by, if the door WAS locked. Did you see
him crawl through the little side window, Danny?"
I nodded. They wasn't nothing else fur me to do.
"But YOU hain't tall enough to look through that there window," says
another one to me. "How could you see into that shop, Danny?"
I didn't know, so I didn't say nothing at all; I jest sniffled.
"They is a store box right in under that window," says another one.
"Danny must have clumb onto that store box and looked in after he
seen Hank come down the road and crawl through the window. Did you

scramble onto the store box and look in, Danny?"
I jest nodded agin.
"And what was it you seen him do? How did he kill himself?" they all
asts to oncet.
I didn't know. So I jest bellers and boo-hoos some more. Things was
getting past anything I could see the way out of.
"He might of hung himself to one of the iron rings in the jists above the
forge," says another woman. "He clumb onto the forge to tie the rope to
one of them rings, and he tied the other end around his neck, and then
he stepped off'n the forge. Was that how he done it, Danny?"
I nodded. And then I bellered louder than ever. I knowed Hank was
down in that there cistern, a corpse and a mighty wet corpse, all this
time; but they kind o' got me to thinking mebby he was hang- ing out in
the shop by the forge, too. And I guessed
I'd better stick to the shop story, not wanting to say nothing about that
cistern no sooner'n I could help it.
Pretty soon one woman says, kind o' shivery:
"I don't want to have the job of opening the door of that blacksmith
shop the first one!"
And they all kind o' shivered then, and looked at Elmira. They says to
let some of the men open it. And Mis' Alexander, she says she'll run
home and tell her husband right off.
And all the time Elmira is moaning in that chair. One woman says
Elmira orter have a cup o' tea, which she'll lay off her bunnet and go to
the kitchen and make it fur her. But Elmira says no, she can't a-bear to
think of tea, with poor Hennerey a-hang- ing out there in the shop. But
she was kind o' enjoying all that fuss being made over her, too. And all
the other women says:

"Poor thing!" But all the same they was mad she said she didn't want
any tea, for they all wanted some and didn't feel free without she took it
too. Which she said she would after they'd coaxed a while and made
her see her duty.
So they all goes out to the kitchen, bringing along some of the best
room chairs, Elmira coming too, and me tagging along behind. And the
first thing they noticed was them flatirons on top of the cistern door.
Mis' Primrose, she says that looks funny. But another woman speaks up
and says Danny must of been playing with them while Elmira was over
town. She says, "Was you playing they was horses, Danny?"
I was feeling considerable like a liar by this time, but I says I was
playing horses with them, fur I couldn't see no use in hurrying things up.
I was bound to get a lamming purty soon anyhow. When I was a kid I
could always bet on that. So they picks up the flatirons, and as they
picks em up they come a splashing noise in the cistern. I thinks to
myself, Hank's corpse'll be out of there in a minute. One woman, she
says:
"Goodness gracious sakes alive! What's that, Elmira?"
Elmira says that cistern is mighty full of fish, and they is some great
big ones in there, and it must be some of them a-flopping around.
Which if they hadn't of been all worked up and talking all to oncet and
all thinking of Hank's body hanging out there in the blacksmith shop
they might of suspicioned something. For that flopping kep' up steady,
and a lot of splashing too. I mebby orter mentioned sooner it had been a
dry summer and they was only three or four feet of water in our cistern,
and Hank wasn't in scarcely up to his big hairy chest. So when Elmira
says the cistern is full of fish, that woman opens the trap door and looks
in. Hank thinks it's Elmira come to get him out. He allows he'll keep
quiet in there and make believe he is drowned and give her a good
scare and make her sorry fur