other shin. I had no time to be alarmed at my
deed, or I think that I should have been very much so; I am a man above
all of peace, and physical encounters are peculiarly abhorrent to me;
but, so far from assailing me, the thick, young savage, with the single
muttered remark, "He hit me fuss," got himself out of the house with the
most agreeable rapidity.

Daddy Ben sat up, and his first inquiry greatly reassured me as to his
state. He stared at my paper bundle. "You done make him hollah wid dat,
sah!"

I showed him the kettle-supporter through a rent in its wrapping, and
I assisted him to stand upright. His injuries proved fortunately to be
slight (although I may say here that the shock to his ancient body kept
him away for a few days from the churchyard), and when I began to talk
to him about the incident, he seemed unwilling to say much in answer to
my questions. And when I offered to accompany him to where he lived, he
declined altogether, assuring me that it was close, and that he could
walk there as well as if nothing had happened to him; but upon my asking
him if I was on the right way to the carpenter's shop, he looked at me
curiously.

"No use you gwine dab, sah. Dat shop close up. He not wukkin, dis week,
and dat why fo' I jaw him jus' now when you come in an' stop him. He de
cahpentah, my gran'son, Cha's Coteswuth."

XII: From the Bedside

Next morning when I saw the weltering sky I resigned myself to a day of
dullness; yet before its end I had caught a bright new glimpse of
John Mayrant's abilities, and also had come, through tribulation, to a
further understanding of the South; so that I do not, to-day, regret the
tribulation. As the rain disappointed me of two outdoor expeditions, to
which I had been for some little while looking forward, I dedicated most
of my long morning to a sadly neglected correspondence, and trusted that
the expeditions, as soon as the next fine weather visited Kings Port,
would still be in store for me. Not only everybody in town here, but
Aunt Carola, up in the North also, had assured me that to miss the sight
of Live Oaks when the azaleas in the gardens of that country seat were
in flower would be to lose one of the rarest and most beautiful things
which could be seen anywhere; and so I looked out of my window at the
furious storm, hoping that it might not strip the bushes at Live Oaks
of their bloom, which recent tourists at Mrs. Trevise's had described
as drawing ne