"I'm 'fraid Rovin' Kate was right about him--ayes!" "What did she say ?" I asked.
"That he was goin' to be hung--ayes! You can't play with him no more.
Boys that take what don't belong to `em--which I hope he didn't--ayes I hope it awful--are apt to be hung by their necks until they are dead--jest as he was goin' to hang ol' Shep--ayes!--they are!" Again I saw the dark figure of old Kate standing in the sunlight and her ragged garments and bony hands and heard the hiss of her flying pencil point.

I clung to my aunt's dress for a moment and then I found old Shep and sat down beside him with my arm around his neck.

I did not speak of the story because I had promised not to and felt sure that Amos would do something to me if I did.
Uncle Peabody seemed to feel very badly when he learned how Amos had turned out.
"Don't say a word about it," said he.

"Mebbe you lost the pennies.

Don't mind 'em." Soon after that, one afternoon, Aunt Deel came down in the field where we were dragging.