"
"I ain't aimin' ter," Judy returned; "but Auntie Sue don't know nothin'
'bout what's happened since she went away, an' hit's that what's
a-makin' me come ter you-all."
Betty Jo, seeing that the poor girl was laboring under some intense
emotional stress, said, gently: "What is it that you wish to tell me,
Judy? I am sure Auntie Sue will not mind, if you feel so about it."
The mountain girl's eyes filled and the tears streamed down her sallow
cheeks, while her twisted shoulders shook with the grief she could not
suppress, as she faltered: "My God-A'mighty! Miss Betty Jo, I--I--didn't
aim ter do hit! I sure didn't! 'Fore God, I'd er let 'em kill me first,
if I'd only had time ter think. But hit--hit--was me what told that
there woman how Mr. Burns was Brian Kent. Hit's--hit's--me what's ter
blame for gittin' her killed in the river an' him so nigh drowned. O
God! O God! If he'll only git well!
"An' I ain't a-feelin' toward you-all like I did, Miss Betty Jo. I
can't no more. I done left them clubhouse folks, after I knowed what has
happened, an' all day I been hangin' 'round here in the bresh. An' Lucy
Warden she done told me, this afternoon, 'bout how you-all was takin'
care of Mr. Burns, an' how you just naturally wouldn't let him die.
An'--an'--I kin see, now, what hit is that makes Auntie Sue and him an'
you-all so different from that there clubhouse gang an' pap an' me.
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