ld man said his hearing was not so good as it
used to be, but he remembered once "hearing a cow-bell all the way from
Overton county." Down the line a rural statistician figured it must be
seventy miles from Pall Mall to the nearest point in Overton county, and
the jests began to explode in the old man's vicinity. He conceded many
changes since he was young, but so far as he could see there was
evidently no improvement in man's hearing powers. When all his efforts
to secure a side bet that he could prove his assertion were futile, he
explained:

"Wall, boys, ye got away. En once I won two gallons o' whisky on hit. I
was in Overton county. I bought a cow. As she had a bell on her, and I
drove her home, I heard that cow-bell all the way from Overton county."

On Saturday afternoon, or a rainy afternoon, when Alvin York and the
"Wright boys," and one of them, "Will" Wright, is president of the bank
at Jamestown; Ab Williams, gray of hair and bent, but vigorous of
tongue; his son, Sam Williams, tall and straight as an Indian and
equally upstanding for his opinions; John Evans, a local justice of the
peace; Bill Sharpe, who lives in the shadow of "Old Crow"; T. C. Frogge,
of Frogge's Chapel, who farms, preaches or teaches school as the demand
arises; "Paster" Pile and his brother, Virgil Pile, who has been County
Trustee; when any of these are among those gathered at the store, there
is a tournament of wit, with a constant change of program.

Many a time John Marion is compelled to retreat behind a grin when in a
lull "a shot" is taken at him, and his smile is his acknowledgment that
he cannot be expected to add up a charge-slip and at the same time
defend himself against a care-free man upon a keg of horseshoes.

But the storekeeper is never taken by surprize at the badinage of his
patrons. One afternoon after a long wait and another day in the valley
seemed sure to pass with no unusual incident, an old fellow arose from
one of the chairs, stretched himself, and said:

"John Marion, I want a shift o' shirts. Else, I got to go to bed to git
this-un washed."

The storekeeper laid out several of dark color:

"Here's some you can wear without change till the shirt falls off."

"That's right, John; gimme one thet won't advertise thet the ole woman's
neglectin' me."

Another was uncertain about the size of a pair of overalls for his boy:

"Dunknow, John Marion! One tight enough to keep the bees out--a kid
shore wastes