What if -- what if -- and then , while her brain with lightning-like rapidity pictured forth a dozen possible catastrophes , something really did happen . Lionel Hezekiah slipped , sprawled wildly , slid down , and fell off the roof , in a bewildering whirl of arms and legs , plump into the big rain-water hogshead under the spout , which was generally full to the brim with rain-water , a hogshead big and deep enough to swallow up half a dozen small boys who went climbing kitchen roofs on a Sunday . Then something took place that is talked of in Carmody to this day , and even fiercely wrangled over , so many and conflicting are the opinions on the subject . Salome Marsh , who had not walked a step without assistance for fifteen years , suddenly sprang to her feet with a shriek , ran down the aisle , and out of the door ! Every man , woman , and child in the Carmody church followed her , even to the minister , who had just announced his text . When they got out , Salome was already half-way up her lane , running wildly . In her heart was room for but one agonized thought . Would Lionel Hezekiah be drowned before she reached him ? She opened the gate of the yard , and panted across it just as a tall , grim-faced woman came around the corner of the house and stood rooted to the ground in astonishment at the sight that met her eyes . But Salome saw nobody . She flung herself against the hogshead and looked in , sick with terror at what she might see . What she did see was Lionel Hezekiah sitting on the bottom of the hogshead in water that came only to his waist . He was looking rather dazed and bewildered , but was apparently quite uninjured . The yard was full of people , but nobody had as yet said a word ; awe and wonder held everybody in spellbound silence . Judith was the first to speak . She pushed through the crowd to Salome . Her face was blanched to a deadly whiteness ; and her eyes , as Mrs. William Blair afterwards declared , were enough to give a body the creeps . `` Salome , '' she said in a high , shrill , unnatural voice , `` where is your crutch ? '' Salome came to herself at the question . For the first time , she realized that she had walked , nay , run , all that distance from the church alone and unaided .
She turned pale , swayed , and would have fallen XXXXX Judith had not caught her .
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