The pedler had no heart to mingle in the conversation any more , but comforted himself with a glass of gin and water and went to bed , where all night long he dreamed of hanging on the St. Michael 's pear tree . To avoid the old farmer -LRB- whom he so detested that his suspension would have pleased him better than Mr. Higginbotham 's -RRB- , Dominicus rose in the gray of the morning , put the little mare into the green cart and trotted swiftly away toward Parker 's Falls . The fresh breeze , the dewy road and the pleasant summer dawn revived his spirits , and might have encouraged him to repeat the old story had there been anybody awake to bear it , but he met neither ox-team , light wagon , chaise , horseman nor foot-traveller till , just as he crossed Salmon River , a man came trudging down to the bridge with a bundle over his shoulder , on the end of a stick . `` Good-morning , mister , '' said the pedler , reining in his mare . `` If you come from Kimballton or that neighborhood , maybe you can tell me the real fact about this affair of old Mr. Higginbotham . Was the old fellow actually murdered two or three nights ago by an Irishman and a nigger ? '' Dominicus had spoken in too great a hurry to observe at first that the stranger himself had a deep tinge of negro blood . On hearing this sudden question the Ethiopian appeared to change his skin , its yellow hue becoming a ghastly white , while , shaking and stammering , he thus replied : `` No , no ! There was no colored man . It was an Irishman that hanged him last night at eight o'clock ; I came away at seven . His folks ca n't have looked for him in the orchard yet . '' Scarcely had the yellow man spoken , when he interrupted himself and , though he seemed weary enough before , continued his journey at a pace which would have kept the pedler 's mare on a smart trot . Dominicus stared after him in great perplexity . If the murder had not been committed till Tuesday night , who was the prophet that had foretold it in all its circumstances on Tuesday morning ? If Mr. Higginbotham 's corpse were not yet discovered by his own family , how came the mulatto , at above thirty miles ' distance , to know that he was hanging in the orchard , especially as he had left Kimballton before the unfortunate man was hanged at all ? These ambiguous circumstances , with the stranger 's surprise and terror , made Dominicus think of raising a hue-and-cry after him as an accomplice in the murder , since a murder , it seemed , had really been perpetrated . `` But let the poor devil go , '' thought the pedler . `` I do n't want his black blood on my head , and hanging the nigger would n't unhang Mr. Higginbotham . Unhang the old gentleman ? It 's a sin , I know , but I should hate to have him come to life a second time and give me the lie . ''
With these meditations Dominicus Pike drove into the street of Parker 's Falls , which , XXXXX everybody knows , is as thriving a village as three cotton-factories and a slitting-mill can make it .
To about after as at in since though till toward