FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101  
102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   >>   >|  
in the road. On his big square nose he wore a pair of curious spring-bowed glasses with black rims. For a moment he looked at me through these glasses, raising his chin a little, and then, deliberately wrinkling his nose, they fell off and dangled at the length of the faded cord by which they were hung. There was something almost uncanny about this peculiar habit of his and of the way in which, afterward, he looked at me from under his bushy gray brows. This was in truth the very man of the neighbourhood portrait. "I am a new settler here," I said, "and I've been interested in looking at your wonderful hedge." The old man's eyes rested upon me a moment with a mingled look of suspicion and hostility. "So you've heard o' me," he said in a high-pitched voice, "and you've heard o' my hedge." Again he paused and looked me over. "Well," he said, with an indescribably harsh, cackling laugh, "I warrant you've heard nothing good o' me down there. I'm a skinflint, ain't I? I'm a hard citizen, ain't I? I grind the faces o' the poor, don't I?" At first his words were marked by a sort of bitter humour, but as he continued to speak his voice rose higher and higher until it was positively menacing. There were just two things I could do--haul down the flag and retreat ingloriously, or face the music. With a sudden sense of rising spirits--for such things do not often happen to a man in a quiet country road--I paused a moment, looking him square in the eye. "Yes," I said, with great deliberation, "you've given me just about the neighborhood picture of yourself as I have had it. They do say you are a skinflint, yes, and a hard man. They say that you are rich and friendless; they say that while you are a just man, you do not know mercy. These are terrible things to say of any man if they are true." I paused. The old man looked for a moment as though he were going to strike me with his stick, but he neither stirred nor spoke. It was evidently a wholly new experience for him. "Yes," I said, "you are not popular in this community, but what do you suppose I care about that? I'm interested in your hedge. What I'm curious to know--and I might as well tell you frankly--is how such a man as you are reputed to be could grow such an extraordinary hedge. You must have been at it a very long time." I was surprised at the effect of my words. The old man turned partly aside and looked for a moment along the proud and flaunting
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101  
102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

looked

 

moment

 

paused

 
things
 
interested
 

higher

 
skinflint
 

curious

 

square

 

glasses


terrible
 

picture

 

friendless

 

rising

 

spirits

 
sudden
 

spring

 

deliberation

 

happen

 
country

neighborhood

 
strike
 

extraordinary

 

reputed

 

frankly

 

flaunting

 

partly

 
surprised
 

effect

 

turned


stirred

 

ingloriously

 

evidently

 

wholly

 

suppose

 

experience

 

popular

 

community

 

hostility

 

suspicion


rested

 

mingled

 

pitched

 

indescribably

 

cackling

 

settler

 
portrait
 

neighbourhood

 

wonderful

 

uncanny