le-jar, the way 's this day 's fell on mine."

Mrs. Lathrop's eyes grew big.

"Mrs. Lathrop, in the first place I started out all wrong. Knoxville
ain't on this line a _tall_. It's on the A. 'n' B., 'n' only the
junction is on this line. Mrs. Lathrop, don't you never trust yourself
to no junction in this world o' sin 'n' sorrow, whatever else you may
in your folly see fit to commit. My experience c'n jus' 's well be a
warnin' to you too, f'r I was put off three miles from where there
ain't no omnibus, 'n' I had to leg it over a road 's is laid out three
hills to the mile. I ain't one 's is give to idle words, but I will
remark 't by the time I'd clum the fourth hill I hadn't no kind o'
family feelin's left alive within me, 'n' when I did finally get to
Knoxville I was so nigh to puffed out 't I c'd hardly find breath to
ask where Cousin Marion _did_ live. It was a boy skippin' rope 's I
asked, 'n' he never quit skippin' for one second out o' politeness.
Seems he was doin' a thousand steady on a bet, 'n' I'm free to confess
's I felt pretty foolish askin' questions 'n' his rope like to catch
on my nose every other word. I finally made out, though, 's Cousin
Marion lived out the other end o' town, 'n' so I walked on till I come
to the road. Mrs. Lathrop, it was another road o' hills, 'n' I must
say 's the sight made my blood run cold for the third time in one day.
F'r a minute I thought seriously o' jus' takin' a train away ag'in 'n'
lettin' Cousin Marion fiddle alone f'r another fifty years, f'r I give
you my word o' honor, Mrs. Lathrop, 's I was 'most dead, 'n' Lord only
knows what made me keep on, f'r what came after was enough to shake my
faith in the Lord forever 'f I really believed 's any one but Cousin
Marion had one word to say in the matter. But I was raised to finish
up all things 's is begun, 'n' I snapped my teeth tight together 'n'
set out over them extra hills with all the resignation 's I c'd scrape
up f'r the need o' the moment. I was hot inside 'n' hot outside, but
I'd made up my mind to see the thing through 'n' so I pegged right
along.

"Well, Mrs. Lathrop, 'f I was on the witness stand with Bibles above
'n' below, I c'd n't but swear 's it was two miles 'f it was a cent.
'N' even then they was a long two miles. I was on my very last legs
when I got there, 'n' nothin' 't I see revived me none. Mrs. Lathrop,
the awfullest old tumble-down house 's ever you see--pigs in the yard,
'n' 'Prim' on the gate