“I used sometimes to make him work; and certain simple things he would do very well, as long as I was by. One day I had a jag of hay to get in; and, as the boys were away, I thought I'd have him load it. I pitched it on to the wagon about where it ought to lie, and looked to him only to pack it down. There turned out to be a bigger load than I had expected, and the higher it got, the worse the shape of it, till finally, as I was starting it toward the barn, off it rolled, and the old man with it, head foremost.
“He struck a stone heap, and for a moment I thought he was killed. But he jumped up and spoke for the first time. '_I'll blow it_,' says he, finishing the sentence he had begun four years before, when he called for the horn to be passed up to him.
“I couldn't have been much more astonished if one of the horses had spoken. But I saw at once that there was an expression in Jedwort's face that hadn't been there since his tumble in the belfry; and I knew that, as his wits had been knocked out of him by one blow on the head, so another blow had knocked 'em in again.
“'Where's Bob?' says he, looking all round.
“'Bob?' says I, not thinking at first who he meant. Oh, Bob is dead--he has been dead these three years.'
“Without noticing my reply, he exclaimed: 'Where did all that hay come from? Where's the old meetin'-house?'
“'Don't you know?' says I. 'Some rogues set fire to it the night after you got hurt, and burnt it up.'
“He seemed then just beginning to realize that something extraordinary had happened.
“'Stark,' says he, 'what's the matter with ye? You're changed.'
“'Yes,' say I, 'I wear my beard now, and I've grown older!'
“'Dumbed if 'ta'n't odd!' says he. 'Stark, what in thunder's the matter with _me?_
“'You've had meeting-house on the brain for the past four years,' says I; 'that's what's the matter.'
“It was some time before I could make him understand that he had been out of his head, and that so long a time had been a blank to him.
“'It looks more slicked up than ever it used to,' says he.
“'Yes,' says I; 'and you'll find everything else on the place slicked up in about the same way.'
“'Dave has gone to town to see about selling the wool.'
“'Dan's in college. He takes a great notion to medicine; and we're going to make a doctor of him.'