lt old Muley got killed."

"Ain't yore fault!"

"No, it ain't my fault. Whut am I going to do? I kaint get no otheh cow
right now, and I done tol' you so. You reckon cows grows on bushes?"

"Grows on bushes!"

"Yes, or that they comes for nuthin'?"

"Comes for nuthin'!"

"Yes, Sar' Ann, that's whut I said. I tell you, it ain't so fur to come,
ain't so fur up here, if you take it easy; only three mile. And Cunnel
Blount'll give us melk as long as we want. I reckon he would give us a
cow, too, if I ast him. I s'pose I could pay him out o' the next crop,
if they wasn't so many things that has to be paid out'n the crop. It's
too blame bad 'bout Muley." He scratched his head thoughtfully.

"Yes," responded his spouse, "Muley was a heap better cow then you'll
ever git agin. Why, she gave two quo'ts o' melk the very mornin' she was
done killed, two quo'ts. I reckon we didn't have to walk no three mile
that mornin', did we? And she that kin' and gentle like--oh, we ain't
goin' to git no new cow like Muley, no time right soon, I want to tell
you that, Jim Bowles."

"Well, well, I know all that," said her husband, conciliatingly, a
trifle easier now that the sunbonnet was for the moment turned aside.
"That's all true, mighty true. But what kin you _do_?"

"Do? Why, do _somethin'_! Somebody sho' ought to suffer for this here.
This new-fangled railroad a-comin' through here, a-killing things an'
a-killing _folks_! Why, Bud Sowers said just the other week he heard of
three darkies gittin' killed in one bunch down to Allenville. They
standin' on the track, jes' talkin' and visitin' like. Didn't notice
nuthin'. Didn't notice the train a-comin'. 'Biff!' says Bud; an' thah
was them darkies."

"Yes," said Mr. Bowles, "that's the way it was with Muley. She just walk
up out'n the cane, and stan' thah in the sun on ther track, to sort o'
look aroun' whah she could see free for a little ways. Then, 'long comes
the railroad train, an' biff! Thah's Muley!"

"Plumb daid."

"Plumb daid."

"And she a good cow fer us fer fo'teen yeahs. It don't look exactly
right, now, does it? It sho' don't."

"It's a outrage, that's whut it is," said Sar' Ann Bowles.

"Well, we got the railroad," said her husband, tentatively.

"Yes, we got the railroad," said Sar' Ann Bowles, savagely, "and what
yearthly good is hit? Who wants any railroad? Why, all the way here this
mornin', I was skeered every foot of the way, afearin' that there ingine
w