I nudged him there, for as I have said, I didn't believe then,
and I don't believe now, that he or any other man ever knew or
mistrusted what they meant by that term "as between man and man."
I think it sounds kind o' flat, and I always oppose Josiah's
usin' it; he loves it.

Wall, the man broke out a' laughin' and sez he, "That haint a
barn, that is a tree."

"A tree!" sez I, a sort o' cranin' my neck forward in deep amaze.
And what exclamation Josiah Allen made, I will not be coaxed into
revealin'; no, it is better not.

But suffice it to say that after a long explanation my companion
at last gin in that the man wuz a tellin' the truth, and it wuz
the lower part of a tree-trunk, that growed once near the Yo Semity
valley of California. Good land! good land!

Josiah drove on quick after the man explained it, he felt
meachin', but I didn't notice his linement so much, I wuz so deep
in thought, and a wonderin' about it; a wonderin' how the old
tree felt with her feet a restin' here on strange soil - her
withered, dry old feet a standin' here, as if jest ready to walk
away restless like and feverish, a wantin' to get back by the
rushin' river that used to bathe them feet in the spring overflow
of the pure cold mountain water. It seemed to me she felt she
was a alien, as if she missed her strong sturdy grand old body,
her lofty head that used to peer up over the mountains, and as if
some day she wuz a goin' to set off a walkin' back, a tryin' to
find 'em.