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-post! 'N' me standin' pantin' for breath, 'n' related to 'em all!" 

 Mrs. Lathrop's eyes grew bigger and bigger. 

 "There was a old man a-sittin' on a chair on the porch in one boot 'n' one slipper 'n' a cane. He looked 't me 's if it 

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