"One of your legs is just a wood peg. And I see your fiddle! Right yonder on the wall!"
"I'll be hanged!"
"Jim-Bo says you can sure scald-a-dog!"
"Jim-Bo? Jim-Bo Jones over at Drake Eye Springs? You know him?"
"Yes, sir. He's Aunt Vic's baby."
"Mattie, this child belongs to somebody way over in Drake Eye Springs! 'Cross the Arkansas line! I'll go hitch up. Get on your good dress, and we'll take her home. I'll bet her pa's got the Law out combing the woods with bloodhounds! And every man in them parts helpin'! We'll go by to see sister Dink while we're over that way. Make haste, Mattie, 'cause you know if it was one o' our'n lost, we'd be outta our minds."
Uncle Hiram hobbled out the back door before I could get a chance to tell him that Mister Ward fell in the deep river. Miss Mattie started washing my face, and then they bundled me up into the wagon, and away we went.
The first house we got to, we stopped while Uncle Hiram went inside to see about using the phone. But when he came back, he was shaking his head.
"It wasn't no use, Mattie. Couldn't get nobody on the Drake Eye Springs line. I reckon they're all out searchin'."
"Let's just go on, Hiram. It won't take more'n three hours."