The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project

When Judge Allison rails against Pettigrew, he refers to the "presence of witnesses when [he] signed [his] will" (797). However, these legal witnesses can attest only to witnessing him sign the document, without the implication that they would see to it that his last wishes would be implemented.

The people at the Judge's funeral in "Beyond" are not directly mentioned, but their presence can be presumed by the reference to "the line of motor cars at his gate" (797).

Pettigrew is the Judge's attorney and the executor of his will, responsible for making sure that the Judge's last wishes are implemented. He doesn't seem to have done so.

All we know about this group is that "they" telephoned the Judge to tell him that his son had been killed (789). "They" probably refers to a single representative of an official group, like a police officer, doctor, or hospital representative, or perhaps a concerned neighbor.

According to the mother that the Judge meets in Beyond, the "old gentleman" who gave the toy soldiers to her son "has a footman to carry his umbrella and overcoat and steamer rug" (793). Typically, a 'footman' is a liveried servant - and not usually found in an American, much less a Southern context. Domestic servants in Yoknapatawpha are black, but given the British locutions here - including "umbrella" and "steamer rug" - there's no reason to assume this footman is.

This "old gentleman" gave the toy soldiers to boy that the Judge meets in Beyond (793). He himself does not appear, but the boy's mother describes him as having "lived here a long time, they say, and is quite wealthy," "with a white mustache and that kind of popping eyes that old people have who eat too much" (793). He often sits with the woman and her child, "talking and breathing hard" (793).

These "other children" are the ones who gave the young mother's son the scars he bears "one day when they were playing" (794). It isn't clear if this happened in a previous life, or in Beyond, but what the mother says - "they didn't know they were going to hurt him" (794) - adds to the details in the story that suggest a connection between this anonymous mother and son and Mary and Jesus in the New Testament.

The hands and feet of this child have been scarred by "the other children . . . one day when they were playing" (794). He likes to play with his toy soldiers, one of which is named Pilate, given to him by "an old gentleman who has lived here a long time" (793). A querulous little boy, he seems at the moment mostly "tired of his toys" (793). Like his mother, he evokes the story of Christ, with which the judge has struggled during his adult life.

This is the mother whom Judge Allison meets in "Beyond," a young woman who wears "a plain, brushed, worn cape" with "a plain, bright, pleasant face" and "a pleasant, tranquil voice" (791). She treats her son "with an air fond and unconcerned," soothing him when he fusses and doling out toys to him (793). When she first appears she is "carrying a child" (791), but she does not provide any details about her previous existence. Ingersoll tells the judge to "Follow her" (791).

During his childhood, as Judge Allison describes it, these "two house servants" (790) would supervise his infrequent trips to play outside barefoot in the garden.