Ole Tom jes whispers:

``To tell you the p'int-blank truth,
stranger, that land's so durned pore that
I hain't nuver been able to raise my
voice.''

Now, brother, I'm a separATE man,
an' I don't inQUIZite into no man's business--
but you ax me straight an' I tell
ye straight. Ole Tom Perkins kin trade
with furriners, fer he have l'arned their
ways. You watch ole Tom!




GRAYSON'S BABY


The first snow sifted in through the
Gap that night, and in a ``shack'' of
one room and a low loft a man was
dead, a woman was sick to death, and
four children were barely alive; and
nobody even knew. For they were hill
people, who sicken, suffer, and sometimes
die, like animals, and make no
noise.