"It seems kind o' funny that I bothered to go, now that I come to think it over," she said, gazing meditatively down upon her friend and her friend's currant-picking; "I wa'n't no relation of Rufus Timmans, 'n' although I don't deny as it 's always a pleasure to go to any one's funeral, still it's a long ways to Meadville, 'n' the comin' back was most awful, not to speak o' havin' no dinner nowhere. It never makes no one brisk but a horse to go without eatin', 'n' I must in consequence say 't I was really very sorry as Rufus was dead durin' the last part of the drive; but o' course he was a very superior man, 'n' as a consequence nobody wanted to have it said in after life as they wa'n't to his buryin'. So I went along with the rest, 'n' Heaven help me now, for I never was more beat out in all my life. I was up awful early this mornin' to be sure o' not bein' left, 'n' I may in confidence remark as I 've thought many times to-day as if I had been left I 'd of been a sight better off. Long rides is very frisky for them as is young 'n' in love 'n' likes to drive alternate, but for a woman o' my age, bein' wedged solid for sixteen miles at a time is most tryin'; 'n' comin' back some o' them smart Meadville boys had the fine idea o' puttin' walnuts under the seats, 'n' we rode most of the way thinkin' as they was our bones till Mr. Dill jus' got up 'n' whopped his cushion over to see if it 'd feel any different the other side, 'n' I may state as the results I shall remember till I die." "Who--" began Mrs. Lathrop.