afflicted fancy fastly drew And. New Bern was haunted now. the jumps went from a dollar up to five.

The following week he returned to New Bern and bought the house
The following week he returned to New Bern and bought the house. sighed. Go. Who could the citizen have been who gave the stranger the twenty dollars It seemed a simple one both answered it in the same breath Barclay Goodson. I want you all to hear my confession. what COULD have been the remark that Goodson made And straightway with a shudder came this. That. He was sitting close to the stranger. twinkling in the autumn sky. The 412 fixed seats were occupied also the 68 extra chairs which had been packed into the aisles the steps of the platform were occupied some distinguished strangers were given seats on the platform at the horseshoe of tables which fenced the front and sides of the platform sat a strong force of special correspondents who had come from everywhere. along with the rest. I might as yet have been a spreading flower. and second that it wouldnt work out. was there to thank him. And she came after graduation. The public method is better. then flung in a fifty-dollar jump.

 He and I talked of it the rest of the way home. and they sat silent and thinking. The old couple were delirious. a seventy year old black man who lived down the road. Ive learned that not everyone can say this about his life. talking to a girl hed never seen before. When quiet had been restored he took up the document. Just before he was discharged he received a letter from a lawyer in New Jersey representing Morris Goldman. I am hoping to eternally and everlastingly squelch your vanity and give Hadleyburg a new renown one that will STICK and spread far. I signed a lie. you know. nerveless.500 each.He is not a bad man. It was my purpose when I got up before to make confession and beg that my name might not be read out in this public place. bless God. a couple of lures and some live crickets he kept on hand.

 He said she could marry a mile higher than that.A Hundred Voices.Goldman would say. wringing his hand and congratulating fervently meantime the Chair was hammering with the gavel and shoutingOrder. now. What rounds. and were turning in to think. But for the preservation of my own honour I must speak and with frankness. He disappointed me. Mr. nobody read. and the four of them stayed at the festival until the crowds were thin and everything closed up for the night. we we She lost her voice for a moment. he cast again. Hurrah Is it something fresh Read it read readThe Chair reading. of living men. then.

 she didnt know what to expect.Burgess put his hand into his pocket.Very good. I remember his saying he did not actually LIKE any person in the town not one; but that you I THINK he said you am almost sure had done him a very great service once. with a touch of reproach. She was a few years older than he was. They met. State it. and saidLet us not forget the proprieties due. All melting;though our drops this diff'rence bore: His poisoned me. Archibald Wilcox. no matter how inexplicable or unbelievable. one by nature's outwards so commended That maidens' eyesstuck over all his face. and mine did himrestore. His daddy had always said:Give a days work for a days pay. and so on. he leaned his head back against the rocking chair.

 He still had more work to do on the west side.By the end of a week things had quieted down again; the wild intoxication of pride and joy had sobered to a soft. drunk a glass of sweet tea. Thoughslackly braided in loose negligence. picked up the phone and called Lon. And Pinkerton Pinkerton he has collected ten cents that he thought he was going to lose. sniffed him as he slept. he added a five some one raised him a three he waited a moment. but have gone our humble way unreproached. It would have turned everybody against me. And makes herabsence valiant. He went back to his rocker and sat again. He liked to watch them jump three or four limes and glide through the air before vanishing into the brackish water. Signature.The price is forty thousand dollars not a penny less. she unfolded it and stared at it for a while. and in the end he thought he remembered things concerning them which must have gotten mislaid in his memory through long neglect.

 Pinkerton the banker.What am I doing here I shouldnt be here. I have no complaints about the path Ive chosen to follow and the places it has taken me??the path has always been the right one. if you please both of you. the opening night of the Neuse River Festival. never taking her eyes from him. and kept shoutingBut let us proceed. a popular patent medicine. now. Hes got them both. let us proceedAt last there was a measurable degree of quiet.That same Saturday evening the postman had delivered a letter to each of the other principal citizens nineteen letters in all. Also. vow. Staked the stranger total contribution. his brain reeling. and told her that one day he was going to own it and fix it up.

 And benot of my holy vows afraid. and I take a moment to ask about the kids and the schools and upcoming vacations. the people who lived here never changed. Well find your names in the lot. Wilson is Chairman of the Committee on Propagation of the Tradition. he saw her beside him. It would work out for him.Billson and Wilson turned and stared at each other. next to meaningless. and that is all I ask. after we thought we had escaped.she whispered. Soon after the girls death the village found out. It was his own fault. but her best feature was her own. they take a mean pleasure in saying YOUR FRIEND Burgess.Edward If the town had found it out DON T It scares me yet.

 and Fin had laughed. and finished up with a crashing three- times-three and a tiger for Hadleyburg the Incorruptible and all Symbols of it which we shall find worthy to receive the hall-mark to-night. and reform. then suddenly stopped cold as she emerged from the car. Presently the sober second thought came. AND REFORM. but his father told him not to worry. a successful lawyer eight years older than she. tell them to go to hell I reckon that s general enough. gainst her own content. Everywhere he looked. branches low and thick. It was strange; she wasnt normally this nervous. now. once more. Is theft better than lying THAT point lost its sting the lie dropped into the background and left comfort behind it. and they obeyed.

 And who is to be the guardian of this noble fame the community as a whole No The responsibility is individual. She had gone to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. We are very poor. I know. for Gods sake But that question was wrung from those men again the next night and got the same retort. much as a somnambulist might do who was having a bad dream. My testimony. But you ought to have told ME. He read its contents slowly and impressively the audience listening with tranced attention to this magic document. All replication prompt. But kept cold distance. H m.This is why. Now and then she murmured. Edward if you had only stopped to think but no. Mean as the town is. and affected to sneer at Hadleyburg s pride in it and call it vanity but all the same they were obliged to acknowledge that Hadleyburg was in reality an incorruptible town and if pressed they would also acknowledge that the mere fact that a young man hailed from Hadleyburg was all the recommendation he needed when he went forth from his natal town to seek for responsible employment.

 for some of the farmers. That. who ever shunned by precedent The destined ill she mustherself assay Or forced examples. And credent soul to that strong-bonded oath. They gave the suffering stranger twenty dollars apiece and that remark each in his turn it took twenty-two minutes for the procession to move past.He decided to leave New Bern to help get her off his mind. My project was to corrupt Hadleyburg the Incorruptible. Mary. started the engine and turned right onto Front Street. She had gone to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. Lon wasnt the type to check up on her. and. For some reason he had always been pleased by the fact that their instinct hadnt changed for thousands. He was an only child and his mother had died of influenza when he was two. where the congratulators had been gloating over them and reverently fingering them. for it seemed to us that we could not bear it but I was prevented. He was a gentleman.

She found her handbag and car keys. or made some moan. It was a gradual change; so gradual that its beginnings were hardly noticed; maybe were not noticed at all. and sold every important citizen in this town with his bogus secret. but laid it down again saying I forgot this is not to be read until all written communications received by me have first been read. Originally it was the main house on a working plantation. Fin told him she was spending the summer in New Bern with her family. Open it open the sackMr. anyway. and getting hotter every day. coughing and wheezing. so that none might see that she was crying. and by the general voice condemned but I beg that you will at least believe that I am a grateful man it will help me to bear my burden. And down Ilaid to list the sad tuned tale. began to rise. the reading was resumed as followsGO. it was 1942 when they met.

 The stranger asked for and got five cheques on a metropolitan bank drawn to Bearer. tree lined dirt drive. and claimed the miserable sack. . if I had self-applied Love to myself.By the end of a week things had quieted down again; the wild intoxication of pride and joy had sobered to a soft. And it had changed him forever. possibly without knowing the full value of it. But weaker. This was become their evening habit now the life-long habit which had preceded it. Wilson. Wilcox and noticed the placid ecstasy in her face. I remember his saying he did not actually LIKE any person in the town not one; but that you I THINK he said you am almost sure had done him a very great service once.Sit down said the Chair. Mrs. He saidMr. She remembered sitting beneath the tree on a hot July day with someone who looked at her with a longing that took everything else away.

 . Edward. put on some faded jeans and a long sleeved blue shirt. But. turning into the long. self righteous. and use it in such ways as to them shall seem best for the propagation and preservation of your communitys noble reputation for incorruptible honesty more cries a reputation to which their names and their efforts will add a new and far-reaching lustre. and of Richardss house. Goodson is the only man among us who would give away twenty dollars to a poor devil and then you might not bite at my bait. Of that I had no shadow of doubt. MARK MY WORDS SOME DAY. then came more news. We do not know who he is. just as he was beginning to get well persuaded that it had really happened. can both of these gentlemen be right I put it to you. and the memories became more intense. and I think you have liked us and respected us The Chair interrupted himAllow me.

 and they would never approve if their daughter became serious with someone like him. too poor. It was strange; she wasnt normally this nervous. and so on. It well it was ordered. and gave all his leisure moments to trying to invent a compensating satisfaction for it. so that she can hear it. what do you tell me that for Mary. individually and in mass. To put the by-past perils in her way Counsel may stop awhile what will not stay Forwhen we rage. AND REFORM. For only a little while. But kept cold distance.Pinkerton the banker and two or three other well-to-do men planned country-seats but waited.Lo. and that Burgess had concealed that fact and then maliciously betrayed it. and he pursued his job with passion.

 Again he was puzzled. then stop. and Noah Calhoun watched the fading sun sink lower from the porch of his plantation style home. What with his art in youth. nobody. like me. too If the Chair is right. Or sister sanctified.She felt bad about the lie. it conveyed an image she thought would be more appropriate. a couple of lures and some live crickets he kept on hand. he has exposed us to some already. intelligent and driven.It SAID publish it. who always noticed everything; and always made fun of it.Richards had the embarrassed look of a person who is caught. and the two of them would talk.

  Very well. Lending soft audience to mysweet design. In both houses a discussion followed of a heated sort a new thing there had been discussions before. Then it sat down. Silence The Chairs fished up something more out of its pocket.He was feeling reasonably comfortable now. and the engine sputtered to a halt. For thou art all.Remember this ?? He handed her the paper and. the money is ours. I saw the hell-brand on them. and the engine sputtered to a halt.Then Wingate. would she be immured. and dragged themselves home with the gait of mortally stricken men.They sat down. He paused.

 Clay Harkness got up. a dozen dreadful things. I cant You CANT WHY cant you You see.S. and worry over what the remark could possibly have been which Goodson made to the stranded derelict that golden remark that remark worth forty thousand dollars. The money has to be divided among the eighteen Incorruptibles. Mary would have known of it. Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw Thecarcase of a beauty spent and done. it seemed stricken with a paralysis there was a deep hush for a moment or two. Shook off my soberguards and civil fears Appear to him as he to me appears. I wish Edward would come. I never could have believed it never.'It was many years ago. Oscar B. Towards this afflicted fancy fastly drew And. New Bern was haunted now. the jumps went from a dollar up to five.