she could afford a cabin cruiser ( and two dozen jet skis to pull it , if she fancied ) , but she came down to the market on this end of the lake in a battered old rowboat , tying up right about where john cullum used to tie his up , until that day ( as the years had refined his story to ever greater purity , burnishing it like an oft-polished piece of teak furniture , chip had come more and more to convey its capital-letter status with his voice , speaking of that day in the same reverential tones the reverend conveigh used when speaking of our lord ) .