The cart was halted before the inclosure, and rejecting the offers of assistance with the same air of simple self-reliance he had displayed throughout, Tennessee’s Partner lifted the rough coffin on his back, and deposited it unaided within the shallow grave.  He then nailed down the board which served as a lid, and mounting the little mound of earth beside it, took off his hat and slowly mopped his face with his handkerchief.  This the crowd felt was a preliminary to speech, and they disposed themselves variously on stumps and boulders, and sat expectant.

“When a man,” began Tennessee’s Partner slowly, “has been running free all day, what’s the natural thing for him to do?  Why, to come home.  And if he ain’t in a condition to go home, what can his best friend do?  Why, bring him home.  And here’s Tennessee has been running free, and we brings him home from his wandering.”  He paused and picked up a fragment of quartz, rubbed it thoughtfully on his sleeve, and went on:  “It ain’t the first time that I’ve packed him on my back, as you see’d me now.  It ain’t the first time that I brought him to this yer cabin when he couldn’t help himself; it ain’t the first time that I and Jinny have waited for him on yon hill, and picked him up and so fetched him home, when he couldn’t speak and didn’t know me.  And now that it’s the last time, why”—­he paused and rubbed the quartz gently on his sleeve—­“you see it’s sort of rough on his pardner.  And now, gentlemen,” he added abruptly, picking up his long-handled shovel, “the fun’l’s over; and my thanks, and Tennessee’s thanks, to you for your trouble.”

Resisting any proffers of assistance, he began to fill in the grave, turning his back upon the crowd, that after a few moments’ hesitation gradually withdrew.  As they crossed the little ridge that hid Sandy Bar from view, some, looking back, thought they could see Tennessee’s Partner, his work done, sitting upon the grave, his shovel between his knees, and his face buried in his red bandana handkerchief.  But it was argued by others that you couldn’t tell his face from his handkerchief at that distance, and this point remained undecided.

In the reaction that followed the feverish excitement of that day, Tennessee’s Partner was not forgotten.  A secret investigation had cleared him of any complicity in Tennessee’s guilt, and left only a suspicion of his general sanity.  Sandy Bar made a point of calling on him, and proffering various uncouth but well-meant kindnesses.  But from that day his rude health and great strength seemed visibly to decline; and when the rainy season fairly set in, and the tiny grass-blades were beginning to peep from the rocky mound above Tennessee’s grave, he took to his bed.