She kept her eyes fixed
upon Cephas. "What has he done?" she repeated.
"I guess he didn't do much of anything," Mrs. Barnard murmured,
feebly; but Deborah did not seem to hear her.
Cephas opened his mouth as if perforce. "Well," he said, slowly, "we
got to talkin'--"
"Talkin' about what?"
"About the 'lection. I think, accordin' to my reasonin', that what we
eat had a good deal to do with it."
"What?"
"I think if you'd kept your family on less meat, and given 'em more
garden-stuff to eat Barney wouldn't have been so up an' comin'. It's
what he's eat that's made him what he is."
Deborah stared at Cephas in stern amazement. "You're tryin' to make
out, as near as I can tell," said she, "that whatever my son has done
wrong is due to what he's eat, and not to original sin. I knew you
had queer ideas, Cephas Barnard, but I didn't know you wa'n't sound
in your faith. What I want to know is, what has he done?"
Suddenly Charlotte sprang up, and pushed herself in between her
father and Mrs. Thayer; she confronted Deborah, and compelled her to
look at her.
"I'll tell you what he's done," she said, fiercely. "I know what he's
done; you listen to me. He has done nothing--nothing that you've got
to deal with him for. You needn't feel obliged to deal with him. He
and father got into a talk over the 'lection, and they had words
about it.
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