point.

"Mostly about rocks. Did you ever hear about the time I hauled that
tombstone for him?"

"I knew you did, of course. What did he do?"

"Well, he did n't do anything much. He expected me to drive oxen
without using any strong language. Just took a sudden notion he did
n't want it. I had got that stone loaded onto a strong truck that I
had rigged up apurpose; then I started up and got the cattle headed up
Main Street in fine shape. Steve was coming along on the sidewalk.
All of a sudden he stepped out into the road and spoke to me. He said
he did n't like the sound of it and he wished I 'd leave out the
swearing. He said it rather cool and solemn, like Pastor Gates does
when he says to omit the second stanza. For a minute I did n't know
what to think. I was doing a plain job of ox-driving and I told him
so. 'That's all right; I understand that,' he says. 'But you don't
expect to go cussing into that cemetery, do you?' 'Well--no,' I says.
'Not since you mention it.' For a minute he had me where I could n't
go ahead nor back up. A man has got to use language to oxen, and what
is he going to say? I am so used to it that I don't even hear myself,
unless I stop to listen; and so it does n't mean any more than the oxen
understand by it. And that is n't much. 'No,' I says, 'not since you
mention it.' 'Well, then,' he says, 'you might as well quit now.
Afterwards you can drive them any way you please and say anything you
want. But it does n't sound right to me now, and I don't want any
swearing on this job.' He said it in such a way that I could see just
about how he felt about it. I saw that any more of it would n't do. I
guess I ought to 'a' thought of it myself."

"And did you succeed in doing as he wished?" asked Mrs. Norton.

"Well, I managed to get them there somehow--considering I hadn't had
any time to practice. It made me wonder, though, what a deaf and dumb
man would think if he got a job driving oxen."

"And that is what you mean by his being peculiar?"

"That's sort of it. But maybe that one does n't quite cover the point.
What I mean is that he 's got all sorts of notions of what's right and
wrong; and he tells it to you all of a sudden. He 's quicker 'n
pig-tail lightning."

"Do you suppose he might think it wrong for us to meddle with his
property?"

"Oh, no. He is n't that way. You know how he is about such things.
And besides he would n't be likely to say anything. I