of
the dooryard fence or from the trestles or inverted feed pails on which
they were invited to seats in the barn or shed. Those who happened to
find their host more ceremoniously at home were allowed to come in, but
were received in rooms so comfortless from the drawn blinds or fireless
hearths that they had not the spirits for the task of cheering him up
which they had set themselves, and departed in greater depression than
that they left him to.

IV.

Ewbert felt all the more impelled to his own first visit by the fame of
these failures, but he was not hastened in it. He thought best to wait
for some sign or leading from Hilbrook; but when none came, except the
apparent attention with which Hilbrook listened to his preaching, and
the sympathy which he believed he detected at times in the old eyes
blinking upon him through his sermons, he felt urged to the visit which
he had vainly delayed.

Hilbrook's reception was wary and non-committal, but it was by no means
so grudging as Ewbert had been led to expect. After some ceremonious
moments in the cold parlor Hilbrook asked him into the warm kitchen,
where apparently he passed most of his own time. There was something
cooking in a pot on the stove, and a small room opened out of the
kitchen, with a bed in it, which looked as if it were going to be made,
as Ewbert handsomely maintained. There was an old dog stretched on the
hearth behind the stove, who whimpered with rheumatic apprehension when
his master went to put the lamp on the mantel above him.

In describing the incident to his wife Ewbert stopped at this point, and
then passed on to say that after they got to talking Hilbrook seemed
more and more gratified, and even glad, to see him.

"Everybody's glad to see _you_, Clarence," she broke out, with tender
pride. "But why do you say, 'After we got to talking'? Didn't you go to
talking at once?"

"Well, no," he answered, with a vague smile; "we did a good deal of
listening at first, both of us. I didn't know just where to begin, after
I got through my excuses for coming, and Mr. Hilbrook didn't offer any
opening. Don't you think he's a very handsome old man?"

"He has a pretty head, and his close-cut white hair gives it a neat
effect, like a nice child's. He has a refined face; such a straight nose
and a delicate chin. Yes, he is certainly good-looking. But what"--

"Oh, nothing. Only, all at once I realized that he had a sensitive
nature. I don't know why