o'se, it was wrong, which it ain't in him to do--not
knowin'ly.

You know, Sonny has about decided to take a trip north, doctor--to New
York State. Sir? Oh, no; he ain't goin' to take the co'se o' lectures
thet Miss Phoebe has urged him to take--'t least, that ain't his
intention.

No; he sez thet he don't crave to fit his-self to teach. He sez he feels
like ez ef it would smother him to teach school in a house all day. He
taken that after me.

No; he's goin a-visitin'. Oh, no, sir; we ain't got no New York kin.
He's a-goin' all the way to that strange an' distant State to call on a
man thet he ain't never see, nor any of his family. He's a gentle man by
the name o' Burroughs--John Burroughs. He's a book-writer. The first
book thet Sonny set up nights to read was one o' his'n--all about dumb
creatures an' birds. Sonny acchilly wo'e that book out a-readin' it.

Yas, sir; Sonny says thet ef he could thess take one long stroll th'oo
the woods with him, he'd be willin' to walk to New York State if
necessary. An' we're a-goin' to let 'im go. The purtiest part about it
is thet this here great book-writer has invited him to pay him a visit.
Think o' that, will you? Think of a man thet could think up a whole row
o' books a-takin' sech a' int'res' in our plain little Arkansas Sonny.
But he done it; an' 'mo' 'n that, he remarked in the letter thet it
would give him great pleasure to meet the boy thet had so many mutual
friends in common with him, or some sech remark. Of co'se, in this he
referred to dumb brutes, an' even trees, so Sonny says. Oh, cert'n'y;
Sonny writ him first. How would he've knew about Sonny? Miss Phoebe she
encouraged him to write the letter, but it was Sonny's first idee. An'
the answer, why, he's got it framed an' hung up above his bookshelves
between our marriage c'tif'cate an' his diplomy.

He's done sent Sonny his picture, too. He's took a-settin' up in a'
apple-tree. You can tell from a little thing like that thet a person
ain't no dude, an' I like that. We 've put that picture in the front
page of the plush album, an' moved the bishop back one page.

Sonny has sent him a photograph of all our family took together, an'
likely enough he'll have it framed time Sonny arrives there.

When he goes, little Mary Elizabeth, why, she's offered to take keer of
all his harmless live things till he comes back, an' I s'pose they'll be
letters a-passin' back and fo'th. It does seem so funny, when I think
about