The oxen, with hanging heads, looked as if they had gone to sleep.

The man hung his head also, and might have been dozing from his appearance.

He was not asleep, however.

What mental machinery he had began to work more freely, and he actually did something that might be called thinking on the one subject that had lain as a dormant matter of curiosity in his head all day--namely, how the girl would act when she woke to find the cart was actually gone and she left behind.

He had seen old Cameron die, and heard Bates promise to do his best for his daughter; he remembered her tears and pleading on the preceding day; the situation came to him now, as perceptions come to dull minds, with force that had gathered with the lapse of time.