THE INVALID S STORY
the box, " But he ain t in no trance! No, sir, I go bail for him !
We sat some time, in meditative silence, listen ing to the wind and the roar of the train; then Thompson said, with a good deal of feeling:
"Well-a-well, we ve all got to go, they ain t no getting around it. Man that is born of woman is of few days and far between, as Scriptur says. Yes, you look at it any way you want to, it s awful solemn and cur us: they ain t nobody can get around it; all s got to go just everybody, as you may say. One day you re hearty and strong" here he scram bled to his feet and broke a pane and stretched his nose out at it a moment or two, then sat down again while I struggled up and thrust my nose out at the same place, and this we kept on doing every now and then "and next day he s cut down like the grass, and the places which knowed him then knows him no more forever, as Scriptur says. Yes ndeedy, it s awful solemn and cur us; but we ve all got to go, one time or another; they ain t no getting around it."
There was another long pause; then
"What did he die of?"
I said I didn t know.
"How long has he ben dead?"
It seemed judicious to enlarge the facts to fit the probabilities; so I said:
"Two or three days."
But it did no good; for Thompson received it with an injured look w^hich plainly said, "Two or three years, you mean." Then he went right along,
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