“So it was the mate? Yes. What did he say, Scip?”
“I never done believe it,” urged Scip, with an air of suddenly recollected virtue.
“But you told of it, Scip.”
“I never told nobody but Jupiter, the durn fool!” persisted Scip.
“Who is Jupiter?”
“Doctor Remane’s Jupiter, him that holds his hoss, that he brung up from the fever. He said he wouldn’t tell. I never done believe it, never!”
“It seems to me, Scip,” said Zerviah, in a low, kind voice, “that I wouldn’t have told if I’d been you. But never mind.”
“I never done mean to hurt you!” cried Scip, following him into the road. “Jupiter the durn, he said he’d never tell. I never told nobody else.”
“You have told the whole town,” said Zerviah Hope, patiently. “I’m sorry, but never mind.”