o' hittin' the rope than he had o' hangin'
himself, 'n' he said when he very quickly felt as he 'd done both
nothin' can properly explain him!--He says the newspapers don't have no
idea a _tall_ of how it feels or they 'd never print it so cool 'n'
calm. He says cuttin' the rope let the pole loose 'n' the noose ran up
on him 'n' choked him most terrible. My gracious, he says but carbolic
acid 'n' Rough on Rats is child's play beside that grip on your throat.
He says he never will forget how it felt, not if he lives to be
Methusalem's great-grandfather. He says he got a most awful jerk from
his head to his heels too as nigh to broke his ankles, 'n' a twist in
his wrist from the weight o' the hatchet, but he said he did n't have no
time to take no a'count o' nothin' just then but the way everythin'
turned red 'n' black 'n' run into his ears."

"Did it kill--" cried Mrs. Lathrop, much excited.

"I 'm goin' to tell you.--He says the last thing he knowed was Tilly's
shriek. O' course when he cut the rope she seen he 'd meant it all, 'n'
so she grabbed up a carvin' knife 'n' yelled to her father 'n' run. Old
man Ely says it was good she run, for there was n't a minute to lose.
Old Pearson run too from where he was in the barn but Tilly got there
first. She didn't lose one second in sawin' him free at both ends 'n' he
says he was so nigh to dead that first he thought she was a gopher, 'n'
then an angel. Oh, my, but he says he was dizzy at first, 'n' faint, 'n'
queer in his ears. He sat 'n' thought about it all by himself for a long
while this mornin' afore he went on again. He says no one ever realizes
how close they are to eternity unless they accidentally go 'n' do
suthin' so darn foolish as that.

"Well, he says, after a while, after a long, long while, he felt to get
to the house, 'n' then, he says, come one o' the strangest parts o' the
story--the part as shows how everythin' turns out for the best in the
end. He says it's really most like a fairy-tale, 'n' jus' as if he 'd
planned it all to order. Seems when he tried to get up 'n' walk to the
house Tilly wanted her father to help hold up his other side, 'n' she
could n't see where her father was. She started aroun' the shed to look
for him 'n' there she found him stretched out flat.--Seems when she cut
Ely loose she let the pole fly roun' jus' in time to take her father in
the legs 'n' there he laid, not dead, but in a way as showed right off
as some one else 'd have t