Then he told of his attempts to trace it, of Jed's anxious inquiries from day to day, and, finally, of the scene he had just passed through.
"So there you are," he concluded.

"I wish to mercy you'd tell me what it all means, for I can't tell myself.

If it hadn't been so-- so sort of pitiful, and if I hadn't been so puzzled to know what made him do it, I cal'late I'd have laughed myself sick to see poor old Jed tryin' to lie.

Why, he ain't got the first notion of how to begin; I don't cal'late he ever told a real, up-and-down lie afore in his life.

That was funny enough--but when he began to tell me he was a thief! Gracious king! And all he could think of in the way of an excuse was that he stole the four hundred to buy a suit of clothes with.