How politely she was laughing at me.
The sense of this, and the certainty that I was born to blunder, came home to me with crushing weight.

I turned slowly to Aunt Jerusha, who was bringing fresh milk, and said, with a simplicity to which pathos must have given dignity: "Aunt, will you show them the way to Widow Cooper's?
I am going to the barn to hang myself," and I walked out.
"Is he in earnest ?" I heard Blue-Eyes inquire.
"Wall, now, I shouldn't be surprised," avowed Aunt Jerusha.

"He's been powerful low-spirited lately.

You see, ladies, he was born that bashful that life is a burden to him." I walked on in the direction of the barn; I would not pause to listen or to cast a backward glance.

Doubtless, my relative told them of my previous futile attempt to poison myself--perhaps became so interested in relating anecdotes of her nephew's peculiar temperament, that she forgot the present danger which threatened him.