his face was just the color of salt pork,
and he said:
" 'Hennery, this excursion is going
to wind up in a tragedy, and if I
die I want you to have a post-mortem
examination made, just to see if I am
right about those doctors leaving that
monkey wrench in me. For heaven's
sake make the machine jump that
fence, for here comes a drove of cat
tle in the road, more'n a hundred
horned steers, and we never can pass
them alive.'
"Gee, but when I saw those cattle
ahead and the machine running away,
I tried to pray, and then I steered her
towards an old rail fence that looked
as though it was rotten, and then
there was a crash, the air was full
of rails, and dad said: 'This is no
hurdle race,' and we landed in a field
where there was an old hard snow
bank. She went up on the side, hit
the frozen snow, turned a summer
sault, the gasoline tank exploded and
I didn't remember anything till some
farmers that were spreading manure
in the field turned me over with a
pitchfork, and asked me who the old
dead man was standing on his head
in the snow bank with his plug hat
around his neck. As soon as I came
to I went to dad, and he was just com
ing out of a trance, and asked him if
he didn't think a little excitement sort
of made the sluggish blood circulate,
and he looked at the blood on the
snow, and said he thought there was
no douot about the circulation of his
blood.
