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With a cry he turned and ran off through the
woods weeping convulsively. "I don't care--I killed
him, but I don't care," he sobbed. As he ran on and
on he decided suddenly that he would never go
back again to the Bentley farms or to the town of
Winesburg. "I have killed the man of God and now
I will myself be a man and go into the world," he
said stoutly as he stopped running and walked rapidly
down a road that followed the windings of
Wine Creek as it ran through fields and forests into
the west.
On the ground by the creek Jesse Bentley moved
uneasily about. He groaned and opened his eyes.
For a long time he lay perfectly still and looked at
the sky. When at last he got to his feet, his mind
was confused and he was not surprised by the boy's
disappearance. By the roadside he sat down on a
log and began to talk about God. That is all they
ever got out of him. Whenever David's name was
mentioned he looked vaguely at the sky and said
that a messenger from God had taken the boy. "It
happened because I was too greedy for glory," he
declared, and would have no more to say in the
matter.
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