Anon a broad gray stripe, monotony, deadly monotony, and lonesomeness, gray as a rat both on 'em, all loosely twisted together makin' a wide melancholy stripe. Then a more flowery piece, golden moments, mounts of soul transfiguration, full understandin', divine hopes and raptures, heart talks, illuminations, all striped in with images of golden rod, evergreen trees pintin' up into the friendly blue heavens, that leaned down so clost you could almost see into the Sweet Beyond. Singin' rivulets, soarin' birds, green fields, rosy clouds. Anon a plain piece, some slazy, as the shuttle seemed to go slower and kinder lazy, and then agin quick strong beats that made the web firm as iron. Mebby that wuz the time that old Mr. Time hung up that old scythe of hisen for a few minutes on the top bars of the loom, and got in and footed it out for his pardner for a spell, while she rested her old feet or wound her bobbins for another stripe. But such idees are futile, futiler than I often mean to be. 'Tennyrate and anyway all the time, all the time the shuttles moved back and forth to and fro, and old Miss Time's tapestry widened out. That summer my pardner had a oncommon good streak of luck, he sold two colts and a yearlin' heifer for a price that fairly stunted us both, it wuz so big. And his crops turned out dretful well, and he jest laid up money by the handfuls as you may say. And one day we wuz talkin' about what extreme good luck we'd had for the past year, and we also talked considerable about Tirzah Ann and little Delight, and how they wuz both pimpin' and puny. The older children away to school wuz doin' first rate both in health and studies, but Tirzah Ann's health wuz such that Whitfield had to keep a girl and pay doctor's bills, and I sez to Josiah: "I am sorry for 'em as I can be, and if this goes on much longer there don't seem much chance of Whitfield's buildin' his house on Shadow Island this summer." And Josiah sez, "No indeed! if he can pay the doctor's bills and help, he will do well. But," sez he, "he is goin' to have quite a good job up to his folkses."