P. 33, Scene 32 (1898) "I like to know . . ."
P. 33, Scene 33 (1912) The bones rounded out of the ditch . . .
P. 34, Scene 34 (1912) Then they all stopped and it was dark . . .
The memory of the buzzards in 1898 evokes in Benjy's mind a time (Scene 33) when he saw the bones of Nancy, a domestic animal, on the night of Mr. Compson's death. The scene must be Mr. Compson's death since T. P. forgot to get a coat for Benjy. Quentin's death in June would not have warranted such a statement about a coat.
Chronologically, the single sentence of Scene 33 should be the last sentence of Scene 34. Examining this seemingly capricious reversal, we then see how precisely Faulkner orders his material since the mention of the buzzards leads to another scene involving buzzards and only then does Benjy's mind imagistically recreate the first part of the scene. Again, note that Faulkner does not use italics to warn us of a sudden shift in time. Instead, the memory of the bones of Nancy are blended into another memory of bones, which leads to a memory of moaning, an incident when Benjy was led out of the house and passed the bones in the ditch. This is also the last scene connected with Mr. Compson's death, and, ironically, it is the one that occurs first in time. The chronological order of the scenes connected with Mr. Compson's death should read as follows: Scenes 34, 33, 23, 25, 24, 20, and 26.
