managed the place ontwell she married Merlin.”

“You knew her first husband, then?”

“Yas, know him? Ev’ybody knew Thad Merlin. He come f’om ovah Pisgah way, an’ he took Marthy thar. Hit’s quare how things goes. I always liked Thad Merlin. The’ wa’n’t no harm in him.”

David saw a quaint, whimsical smile play about the old man’s mouth. “He war a preacher — kind of a mixtur of a preacher an’ teacher an hunter. Couldn’t anybody beat him huntin’ — and farmin’ — well he could farm, too, — better’n most. He done well whatever he done, but he had a right quare way. He built that thar rock wall an’ he ‘lowed he’d have hit run plumb