Introduction
"Oh, I was only passing by; were you asleep?"
"Sleepin' or not, I was thinkin' of you. Come in."
Stepping rather reluctantly into the yard, I sat down on the floor of the porch near Silas,—for he did not offer to get me a chair,—and waited for him to speak.
"As a boy," said Silas, in softer tones than I had ever heard before, "you had a grudge again' me, as your father had again' mine, and your grandpap again' mine, and so on away back. It never showed much, that I know of, but the feelin' was there: and yet we started even, for my folks came from England as long ago as yourn.
"But there's no Crabtree besides me, and I wanted to get things in shape, for there's some would like the old cottage that ain't goin' to get it. I don't know that there's any more to tell you." And Silas looked out towards the road and into the woods upon its other side.
I kept my seat. I could not do otherwise. The Silas of to-day was not he whom
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