Whenst his body is fund his head will
be mashed ter a jelly by the fall, an' nobody kin say he kem otherwise by
his death--jes' an accident in drivin' a skittish horse-critter."
Whether it was a sound, whether it was a movement, none of the group was
accurately aware. It may have been merely that mesmeric influence of an
intently concentrated gaze that caused them suddenly to turn. They beheld
standing in the road--and they flinched at the sight--a witness to all
the proceedings. A small, a simple, object to excite such abject terror
as blanched the faces of the group--a little boy, a mere baby, staring at
the men with wide blue eyes and unconjecturable emotions. He had
doubtless been enveloped in the rug which had fallen from the vehicle as
it first careened in the road, and which now lay among the wayside weeds.
His toggery of the juvenile mode made him seem smaller than he really
was; his scarlet cloth coat, embroidered in Persian effects, was thick
and rendered his figure chubby of aspect; his feet and legs were encased
in bulky white leggins; he wore a broad white beaver hat, its crown
encircled by a red ribbon, and his infantile jauntiness of attire was
infinitely incongruous with the cruel tragedy and his piteous plight.
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