: he not only abstained
from all argument upon the "Cory Murder" and the case of Happy Fear,
refusing to discuss either in any terms or under any circumstances, but
he also declined to speak of Ariel Tabor or of Joseph Louden; or of
their affairs, singular or plural, masculine, feminine, or neuter, or
in any declension. Not a word, committal or non-committal. None!

And his face, when he was silent, fell into sorrowful and troubled
lines.

At first they merely marvelled. Then Squire Buckalew dared to tempt
him. Eskew's faded eyes showed a blue gleam, but he withstood,
speaking of Babylon to the disparagement of Chicago. They sought to
lead him into what he evidently would not, employing many devices; but
the old man was wily and often carried them far afield by secret ways
of his own. This hot morning he had done that thing: they were close
upon him, pressing him hard, when he roused that outburst which had
stirred the idlers on the benches in the Court-house yard. Squire
Buckalew (sidelong at the others but squarely at Eskew) had volunteered
the information that Cory was a reformed priest. Stung by the mystery
of Eskew's silence, the Squire's imagination had become magically
gymnastic; and if anything under heaven could have lifted the veil,
this was the thing. Mr. Arp's reply may be reverenced.

"I consider," he said, deliberately, "that James G. Blaine's furrin
policy was childish, and, what's more, I never thought much of HIM!"

This outdefied Ajax, and every trace of the matter in hand went to the
four winds. Eskew, like Rome, was saved by a cackle, in which he
joined, and a few moments later, as the bench loafers saw, was pulled
down into his seat by the Colonel.

The voices of the fathers fell to the pitch of ordinary discourse; the
drowsy town was quiet again; the whine of the planing-mill boring its
way through the sizzling air to every wakening ear. Far away, on a
quiet street, it sounded faintly, like the hum of a bee across a creek,
and was drowned in the noise of men at work on the old Tabor house. It
seemed the only busy place in Canaan that day: the shade of the big
beech-trees which surrounded it affording some shelter from the
destroying sun to the dripping laborers who were sawing, hammering,
painting, plumbing, papering, and ripping open old and new
packing-boxes. There were many changes in the old house pleasantly in
keeping with its simple character: airy enlargements now almost
comple