Traveler: Where does this road go to?
Squatter: It don't go anywhere, it stays here.
Arkansas Traveler is also a painting by Edward Payson Washburn based on the dialogue cited by fuzzy and blue above. That dialogue has appeared in a number of forms over the years, in the form of skits, poems, stories, and songs.
Traveler: Can you give me a night's lodging?
Squatter: No room, stranger.
Traveler: Can't you make room?
Squatter: No, sir; it might rain.
Traveler: What if it does rain?
Squatter: There's only one dry spot in this house, and me and Sal sleeps on that.
In 1850 or so, Washburn created two paintings, one called The Arkansas Traveler and a second called The Turn of the Tune.
Traveler: What are you playing that tune over so often for?
Squatter: Only heard it yisterday. 'Fraid I'll for get it.
Traveler: Why don't you play the second part of it?
Squatter: I've knowed that tune ten years, and it ain't got no second part.
Traveler: Give me the fiddle.
In 1870, Currier and Ives released prints of these two paintings. Today, the originals reside in the Arkansas capitol building in Little Rock.
The stranger strikes up, turning away into the unknown
second part with the heel-tingling skill of a true jig-player.
Squatter: Walk in, stranger, Tie up your horse 'side of ol' Ball. Give him ten ears of corn. Pull out the demijohn and drink it all. Stay as long as you please. If it rains, sleep on the dry spot.
Images of the two paintings can be seen here: http://www.mcny.org/currierives/west6.htm
Sources:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/educators/workshop/discover/arkansas.html
http://stellar-one.com/arkansas_history/on_the_track_of_the_arkansas_traveler.htm