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And come to think of it, was there a railroad in Tom's town? He never speaks of one. And nobody ever goes anywhere, except to Coonville, which maybe was as far from Tom's town as Atterberry from your grandpa's farm. Say, this is wonderful." And Mitch took off his hat and let the wind blow through his sweaty hair.
It had taken us hours and hours to come from Atterberry, and Willie said it wasn't more'n forty miles. We hopped off and started away. "Here," said the conductor. "Here's the receipt for your fare." He slipped the two dollars into my hand with a laugh, and we shook hands with Willie Wallace and started up town. It seemed sad to part with Willie Wallace at the depot, but things was changed.
They had give him ether or somethin' and so he kept gettin' drowsier and drowsier, and finally died in his sleep. So my pa and grandpa talked till noon most wonderful talk; and then we had dinner and grandma told more funny stories than you ever heard, and had the best time in the world. And after dinner, grandpa hitched up the horses and drove pa to Atterberry to catch the train for Havaner.
He was on the C. P. which came through Atterberry, and I was bettin' if we went there some day when the train came through we could see him in the caboose, or runnin' on top of the cars, or couplin' and sayin' "back her up," or motionin' to go ahead. You can bet that grandma started to get me well.
And maybe you'd better tell me right now." "Well," says Mitch, "there's more'n one thing to tell and both of 'em had somethin' to do with me comin' to-day. I couldn't stand the town another minute. I had to get away." So we walked on and didn't get a lift or anything, and about eleven we came to Atterberry.
And here the conductor saw us for the first time. He started to come up in the cupola and the first thing he says was, "Fares, please." "How much?" says I. "Where you goin'?" says he. "To Havaner," I says. "Where did you get on?" "At Atterberry," I says. I began to look for Willie Wallace, but he warn't anywhere around. Then the conductor says, "One dollar."
Then we walked clear to the back of the orchard, clumb the rail fence, walked through the meadow a roundabout way and came to the road on the other side of the Tate farm. So here we struck out for Atterberry, so as to walk the railroad to Havaner. We thought we could make Oakford before night. When we got fairly started Mitch said, "Something terrible has happened to me, Skeet it's terrible."
What do you suppose, when we got to Atterberry, there was Willie Wallace in charge of a freight train which had side-tracked for the passenger goin' to Havaner. You can't imagine how funny it seemed to see him talkin' to the conductor and everything; and how funny it seemed that I knowed him so well, since I had seen him plow and drive a team and all that on the farm.
"Look here, Willie, this here conductor hit us for two dollars, a dollar apiece for our fare to Havaner." "No," says Willie. "Honest, didn't he, Mitch?" Mitch said, "Yep." "Well, he must be foolin'," says Willie, "for the fare is only 60 cents from Atterberry, and you'd go half fare at 30 cents." Mitch says, "I've heard about conductors knockin' down, and this looks like it to me.
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