masheenery in that buildin'. If anyone hed
ever told me thar wuz that much masheenery
in the whole world durned if I'd a-beleeved
them; biggest masheen I'd ever seen
before wuz Si Pettingill's new thrashin'
masheen. Wall, I jist stood thar a-watchin'
them printin' presses a-runnin'; paper goin'
in to one end and cumin' out at t'other all
printed and full of picters and folded up
ready to sell; it jist beat all the way they done
it. Wall, we never had but one paper down
home at Punkin Centre; we called it "The
Punkin Centre Weakly Bugle;" old Jim
Lawson he wuz editor of it. You see Jim
he wuz sort of a triflin' no 'count old cuss,
so to keep him out of mischief we made him
editor. Wall, Jim he had his place up over
Ezra Hoskins' grossery store. He never got
any money for the noospaper--always got
paid in produce, and Ezra's store wuz a
mighty good place fer him to take in his
subskriptions. Wall, things went along
pretty smooth fer quite a spell 'til one day a
feller he cum in and give Jim a keg of hard
cider fer a year's subskription to the noospaper,
and we all calculated right then that
somethin' wuz a-goin' to happen; and sure
enough it did. You see 'bout that time Jim
had got two advertisements; one wuz fer
Ruben Jackson's resterant and the other wuz