"Cassie said she never forgot that first day-did I tell you it was New Year's?-on Paint Creek. It was the first time she ever heard a mountain fiddle."

Aunt Cathy, just back from physical therapy, was no longer surprised to find Little Billy, Louie and Sharon waiting in her room. This was their third day back in a row. It sure made her stay here more bearable, and took her mind off the pain and fatique of the physical therapy. She had been moved to see these young people were genuinely interested in this story she had to tell. She was more aware than ever that her days on earth were limited, and it was a relief to be able to tell what needed told. To tell the young ones what she thought it important they hear.

The day after Thanksgiving, Little Billy and Louie had come back, bringing Sharon and a tape recorder with them. "To catch Big Bill up," said Billy, "When he's ready to hear."

"Cassie said when she heard that fiddle, it stopped her dead in her tracks. Her momma was eager to get on to the boarding house, less than a block from the train depot at Pratt, but Cassie stood in the middle of the muddy road, listening, refusing to budge. Remember where Pritchard's store use to stand, before it burned down? Cassie said there was a little gatherin' of people in there, for a New Year's get together. There was a wood stove and she could smell the corned beef and cabbage simmering in a cast iron pot on top of it. When the song ended nothin' would do but she had to go right up to the fiddler. Okie Hernshaw is who it was, Old Man Jacob Hernshaw's pa.
"She asked him the name of the tune. 'Thorny Patch' he replied. 'I'm new in town,' she said. 'Will you teach me to play a violin like that?' Can't you just see that, Billie? This little ten year old girl marchin' up like that, just as bold as you please?

"He told her straight away that when you played it like that, it wasn't no violin. It was a fiddle.

"You'd think it would be movin' into the boarding house with her mother that she would remember. but she never said a word about that."

"Well, hello old friend! I wondered when you'd turn up." Mjolnir had found his way to Cathy's room.