"Come heah," said Mrs. Bowles. "Git me another pail o' melk. I done
spilled this one."

"Yassam," replied Jinny, and presently returned with the refilled
vessel.

"Well, anyway," said Jim Bowles at length, rising and standing with
hands in pockets, inside the edge of the shade line of the
evergreens, "I heard that thah was a man come down through heah a few
days ago. He was sort of takin' count o' the critters that done got
kilt by the railroad kyahs."

"That so?" said Sarah Ann, somewhat mollified.

"I reckon so," said Jim Bowles. "I 'lowed I'd ast Cunnel Blount 'bout
that sometime. 0' co'se it don't bring Muley back, but then---"

"No, hit don't," said Sarah Ann, resuming her original position. "And
our little Sim, he just loved that Muley cow, little Sim, he did,"
she mourned.

"Say, Jim Bowles, do you heah me?"--this with a sudden flirt of the
sunbonnet in an agony of actual fear. "Why, Jim Bowles, do you know
that ouah little Sim might be a-playin' out thah in front of ouah
house, on to that railroad track, at this very minute? S'pose,
s'posen--along comes that thah railroad train! Say, man, whut you
standin' there in that thah shade fer? We got to go! We got to git
home! Come right along this minute, er we may be too late."

And so, smitten by this sudden thought, they gathered themselves