Yes, sir, that there dream all come back to me as plain as day, Bill Bowers and all, jist as soon as I laid eyes on him.
So it was no more than nateral for me to tell him about it. Jobe not bein at home, I had to do the entertainin. As soon as he got in and got settled, I says:
“‘Ide vote the Dimicrat ticket at the very next township election.’” ]
“Bill Bowers, I am glad to see you. I must tell you my dream. Bring your cheer up to the fire.”
Then I jist up and told him that whole dream, and he swollered every word of it without chawin, as it were.
“Betsy Gaskins, if that ere dream was only enacted into a law, what a blessin it would be to the creatures of this world! Betsy, though I am one of the stanchest Republicans in Sandyville, if this here Dimicratic Congress would make sich a law, Ide vote the Dimicrat ticket at the very next township election. Betsy, how in the world did you come to dream sich a dream?”
Now, how do I know how I come to dream any particular dream? I went to bed and went to sleep, jist as I had done for nigh onto thirty-five years, exceptin, of course, Jobe slept in the spare bed and me alone. But would I tell Bill Bowers of that split in the two old parties, as it were, and have him tell all over creation that Jobe Gaskins and his wife Betsy had quit sleepin together? No. Ide die fust. So I jist says:
“Well, Bill, indeed I dont know how I come to dream it.”
Well, my tellin of Bill Bowers that ere dream is causin me no ends of trouble. Ime jist worried and hounded about by this and that one, to have me tell em about that dream, until I hardly git time to breathe.
Bill Bowers he jist went, and from the time he left our house until now he has been a tellin of my dream to every one he meets. And it seems he is a keepin a tellin it, the way people has been flockin here and keep a flockin. Jake Cribbs, and Joe Born, and Curt Hill, and Bill Loyd, and Jim Rankin and Mag his wife, and the Minnings, and the Bateses, and the Hances, and goodness only knows who all has been here to know more about my dream! And how I come to have it; and what Ime a goin to do about it; and why I dont git it published; and why I dont send it to Congress; and why I dont do this and do that!