But Tom said:
"No, you ain't going to be found out. You DIDN'T
kill him. ONE lick wouldn't kill him. Somebody else
done it."
"Oh, yes," he says, "I done it -- nobody else.
Who else had anything against him? Who else COULD
have anything against him?"
He looked up kind of like he hoped some of us could
mention somebody that could have a grudge against
that harmless no-account, but of course it warn't no
use -- he HAD us; we couldn't say a word. He
noticed that, and he saddened down again, and I never
see a face so miserable and so pitiful to see. Tom
had a sudden idea, and says:
"But hold on! -- somebody BURIED him. Now
who --"
He shut off sudden. I knowed the reason. It give
me the cold shudders when he said them words, because
right away I remembered about us seeing Uncle Silas
prowling around with a long-handled shovel away in
the night that night. And I knowed Benny seen him,
too, because she was talking about it one day. The
minute Tom shut off he changed the subject and went
to begging Uncle Silas to keep mum, and the rest of us
done the same, and said he MUST, and said it wasn't his
business to tell on himself, and if he kept mum nobody
would ever know; but if it was found out and any
harm come to him it would break the family's hearts
and kill them, and yet never do anybody any good.
So at last he promised. We was all of us more com-
fortable, then, and went to work to cheer up the old
man.
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