"I ain't never been in a place like this but once before,
and I hope you'll forgive me if I make any mistakes," and he looked
about the room, a flickering, half-burnt-out smile trembling on
his lips.
"Well, I got a piece of land 'bout two miles back of my place that
belongs to my wife, and I ain't never fenced it in, for I ain't never
had no time somehow to cut the timber to do it, she's been so sickly
lately. 'Bout a year ago I was goin' 'long toward Hi Stephens's mill
a-lookin' for muskrats when I heard some feller's axe a-workin' away,
and I says to Hi, 'Hi, ain't that choppin' goin' on on the wife's land?'
and he said it was, and that Luke Shanders and his boys had been
drawin' out cross-ties for the new railroad; thought I knowed it.
"Well, I kep' 'long up and come on Luke jes's he was throwin' the las'
stick onto his wagon. He kinder started when he see me, jumped on and
begin to drive off. I says to him, 'Luke,' I says, 'I ain't got no
objection to you havin' a load of wood; there's plenty of it; but it
don't seem right for you to take it 'thout askin', 'specially since the
wife's kind o' peaked and it's her land and not yourn.
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