pleasant place to set and watch the scenery. But they was a gang o’ missionaries or somethin’ had all the seats and they never budged out o’ them all day. Every time they’d come to a crossroads they’d toss a stack o’ Bible studies out o’ the back window for the southern heathen to pick up and read. I suppose they thought they was doin’ a lot o’ good for their fellow men, but their fellow passengers meanw’ile was gettin’ the worst of it.
Speakin’ o’ the scenery, it certainly was somethin’ grand. First we’d pass a few pine trees with fuzz on ’em and then a couple o’ acres o’ yellow mud. Then they’d be more pine trees and more fuzz and then more yellow mud. And after a w’ile we’d come to some pine trees with fuzz on ’em and then, if we watched close, we’d see some yellow mud.
Every few minutes the train’d stop and then start up again on low. That meant the engineer suspected he was comin’ to a station and was scared that if he run too fast he wouldn’t see it, and if he run past it without stoppin’ the inhabitants wouldn’t never forgive him. You see, they’s a regular schedule o’ duties that’s followed out by the more prominent citizens down those parts. After their wife’s attended to the chores and got the breakfast they roll out o’ bed and put on their overalls and eat. Then they get on their horse or mule or cow or dog and ride down to the station and wait for the next train. When it comes they have a contest to see which can count the passengers first. The losers has to promise to work one day the followin’ month. If one fella loses three times in the same month he generally always kills himself.
All the towns has got five or six private residences and seven or eight two-apartment buildin’s and a grocery and a post-office. They told me that somebody in one o’ them burgs, I forget which one, got a letter the day before we come through. It was misdirected, I guess.
The two-apartment buildin’s is constructed on the ground floor, with a porch to divide one flat from the other. One’s the housekeepin’ side and