"Mrs. Lathrop, I never had it in me to conceal nothin' from you. We've been good friends 'n' true through thick 'n' thin, through my father 'n' your son 'n' every other species o' Heaven-sent infliction, f'r years 'n' years 'n' years. 'N' now I ain't goin' to shut you out o' the inside truth o' this awful day. You see me set off this mornin' bright 'n' beamin', 'n' you see me come home this night burnin' 'n' bitter, 'n' it's nothin' but right's you sh'd be fully took in to the betwixt 'n' between. It'll mebbe be a lesson to you some day if anythin' sh'd come up 's led you to look to be extra happy all of a sudden, 'n' you'll remember this hour 'n' jus' firmly go back into the house 'n' shut the door 'n' say, 'Life's a delusion 'n' a snare, like Susan Clegg's Cousin Marion.' It's better for you to learn the lesson 's all is vanity now, than to wait 'n' have it fall on your head like a unexpected pickle-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