nt.'

"And she looked at me in a curious sort o' way, and says she: 'Don't you
mind givin' up this old mahogany? Would you just as soon have new golden
oak furniture?' And I says: 'No, I wouldn't jest as soon; I'd a good
deal rather have it.'

"And she laughed real pleasant, and says she: 'I'm so glad you feel that
way about it. I always feel guilty when I buy old furniture that the
owner is unwilling to part with, no matter how good a price I pay for
it.' And I says: 'Well, you can have a clear conscience in the matter of
buyin' my old furniture. This check and the golden oak I'm goin' to buy
with it is perfectly satisfactory to me.'

"And what do you reckon I'm goin' to do with that money, Maria? I reckon
people think that because I've lived here all my life I've enjoyed doin'
so. But I haven't. I've been jest as tired of Goshen neighborhood as I
ever was of my old mahogany,--the old roads and the old fences and the
old farms,--yes, and the old people, too. Maria, I get tired of
everything, even myself, and now I'm goin' to travel and see the world,
that's what I'm goin' to do. What's the use in livin' sixty or seventy
years in a world like this and never seein' it. Why, you might as well
be a worm in a hickory nut. And, Maria, I take out my old geography
sometimes, when I'm sittin' here alone in the evenin', and I look at the
map of North America, and there's the big Atlantic ocean on one side and
the big Pacific ocean on the other; and all the big rivers and lakes in
between flowin' down to the big Gulf of Mexico; and here I am stuck fast
in this little old place, and the most water I've ever seen is Drake's
Creek and Little Barren River! And I look on the map at the mountains
runnin' up and down this country, the Rocky Mountains and the
Alleghanies and all the rest of 'em, and the highest ground I've ever
seen is Pilot Knob! I'm not afraid to die, Maria, but when I think of
all the things that's to be seen in this world, and how I'm not seein'
'em, I just pray: 'Lord, don't let me go to the next world till I've
seen somethin' of this one.' And now my prayer's answered. I don't know
whether I'll go east or west or north or south; but I'm goin' to see the
ocean, and I'm goin' to see the mountains before I die, all on account
o' that mahogany furniture; I never supposed the day would come when
I'd be thankful for that old plunder; but sometimes, Maria, the things
we don't want turn out to be our greatest blessin's.