As the day wore on, Leon adduced that the main reason Roscoe had wanted to accompany him was not fear for the validity of his claims on the estate of Clarence Anderson, but the craftiness to gain for those claims respectability and acceptance, with a hint that Leon endorsed the involvement of his overseer in Clarence Anderson’s affairs, that he was even perhaps using Roscoe Elk as proxy to secure the Anderson Farm as a part of Beulah Land!

The Kitesville lawyer, Mr. Guthrie, turned out to be perfectly honest. Later, Leon was to acknowledge to himself that Roscoe would, of course, have sought the most reliable and unchallengeable legal services he could find. Mr. Guthrie and Felix Kendrick talked lawyer points to each other while Leon and Roscoe stood solemnly by pretending they understood the exact meaning of what was said.

The upshot was that Roscoe would have it all—land, house, slaves. Whatever the claims of anyone else, be they written or spoken, Roscoe’s notes were specific and denied all other claims and agreements that might come later or that might be put forth as having come before. Mr. Guthrie suggested with some sternness that Roscoe allow the sisters Bessie and Emily—and without their knowing he “allowed” them—to take whatever they wanted from the house. The law was the law, but public feeling had to be considered too. Roscoe agreed instantly, and Mr. Guthrie said he would, with the two Mr. Kendricks, undertake to explain the general situation and disposition of the property to the surviving sisters.

Riding home finally, late that night, Leon could think of no dignified way to ask Roscoe the largest question in his mind. Would Roscoe now leave Beulah Land?

There is, generally speaking, a quick if not easy acceptance of the worst and a sensible dealing with its exigencies, and so it proved in the present unhappy instance. It would seem that tragedy seldom destroys people, that, in fact, as is so often said, it “brings out the best” in them and that more often than tragedy it is the boredom of humdrum every day that has power to drive men mad.

However that may be, Clarence was bathed and dressed and put into a coffin that was then closed and not opened again. Turnip, the head man of the slaves, who had taken charge the morning of his master’s suicide, maintained order on the farm by keeping everybody at work.