“Well, you are asking queer questions, sure enough. No, I never did.”
“Is there, or is there not, a railway line across the continent to the Pacific?”
“What a funny kind of an idea! No, there isn’t.”
“Are there any such things as daily papers?”
“No, sir.”
“One question more: I see you have a wood fire. Do you never burn coal?”
“Charcoal, sometimes, for some purposes.”
“I mean hard coal—stone coal?”
“There is no such thing in existence, so far as I know. What are you up to, anyhow? Going to invent something?”
“I will tell you after awhile, may be,” replied Ephraim; and then to himself he said, “I am beginning to catch the meaning of all this experience. How strange it is!”