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 ‘d be nothin’ but a joy to him to eat me up alive ‘n’ jus’ relish to gnaw the bones afterwards.  You c’n maybe realize, Mrs. Lathrop, ’s I wasn’t no ways happy ’s I walked a little piece up towards him ‘n’ said ’s I ’d like to see my cousin, Marion Prim.  He give such a nod ’s seemed ’s if his head ’d fly off, ‘n’ I took it ’s she was somewhere near ‘n’ a-comin’.  So, ‘s I was all used up, I jus’ started to sink right down on the steps to wait for her.

“Oh, my soul ‘n’ body, that minute!—­The awful shock!—­Oh, Mrs. Lathrop! you never in all your life dreamed such a yell ’s he give!  I like to ‘a’ went deaf!  I jumped worse ’n ’f I ’d been shot stone-dead.  Wild whoopin’ Indians was sleepin’ babes beside him.  ’Not on my steps!’ he shrieked, poundin’ with his cane ‘n’ shakin’ with his fist,—­’not on my steps,’ he howled louder ’n all below,—­’not while I ’m alive!—­not while I c’n prevent!—­not while I c’n help it!—­no Clegg sits afore me, not now ‘n’ not never!’ You c’n imagine, Mrs. Lathrop, ’s I didn’t get very far to sat down under them circumstances.  I trembled all over, ‘n’ I backed off quite