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You've heered
talk o' Johnstown?"

Harvey considered. "Yes, I have. But I don't know why. It sticks
in my head same as Ashtabula."

"Both was big accidents - thet's why, Harve. Well, that one single
night Penn and his folks was to the hotel Johnstown was wiped out.
'Dam bu'st an' flooded her, an' the houses struck adrift an'
bumped into each other an' sunk. I've seen the pictures, an'
they're dretful. Penn he saw his folk drowned all 'n a heap 'fore
he rightly knew what was comin'. His mind give out from that on.
He mistrusted somethin' hed happened up to Johnstown, but for the
poor life of him he couldn't remember what, an' he jest drifted
araound smilin' an' wonderin'. He didn't know what he was, nor yit
what he hed bin, an' thet way he run ag'in' Uncle Salters, who was
visitin' 'n Allegheny City. Ha'af my mother's folks they live
scattered inside o' Pennsylvania, an' Uncle Salters he visits
araound winters. Uncle Salters he kinder adopted Penn, well
knowin' what his trouble wuz; an' he brought him East, an' he give
him work on his farm."

"Why, I heard him calling Penn a farmer last night when the boats
bumped. Is your Uncle Salters a farmer?"

"Farmer!" shouted Dan. "There ain't water enough 'tween here an'
Hatt'rus to wash the furrer-mould off'n his boots. He's Jest
everlastin' farmer. Why, Harve, I've seen thet man hitch up a
bucket, long towards sundown, an' set twiddlin' the spigot to the
scuttle-butt same's ef 'twuz a cow's bag. He's thet much farmer.
Well, Penn an' he they ran the farm - up Exeter way, 'twuz. Uncle
Salters he sold it this spring to a jay from Boston as wanted to
build a summerhaouse, an' he got a heap for it. Well, them two
loonies scratched along till, one day, Penn's church he'd belonged
to - the Moravians - found out where he wuz drifted an' layin',
an' wrote to Uncle Salters. 'Never heerd what they said exactly;
but Uncle Salters was mad. He's a 'piscopalian mostly - but he
jest let 'em hev it both sides o' the bow, 'sif he was a Baptist,
an' sez he warn't goin' to give up Penn to any blame Moravian
connection in Pennsylvania or anywheres else. Then he come to dad,
towin' Penn, - thet was two trips back, - an' sez he an' Penn must
fish a trip fer their health. 'Guess he thought the Moravians
wouldn't hunt the Banks fer Jacob Boller. Dad was agreeable, fer
Uncle Salters he'd been fishin' off an' on fer thirty years, when
he warn't inventin' patent manures, an' he took quarter-share in
the 'We're Here'; an' the trip done Penn so much good, dad made a
habit o' takin' him. Some day, dad sez, he'll remember his wife
an' kids an' Johnstown, an' then, like's not, he'll die, dad sez.
Don't yer talk about Johnstown ner such things to Penn, 'r Uncle
Salters he'll heave ye overboard."

"Poor Penn!" murmured Harvey. "I shouldn't ever have thought Uncle
Salters cared for him by the look of 'em together."

"I like Penn, though; we all do," said Dan.

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