NEIGHBORHOOD NUISANCE 203 



bors pokering their unbending way townwards, 

 brought forcibly to my mind the necessity of in 

 some way ingratiating myself with them if I was 

 to be a valued member of the colony and in good 

 standing. With Daniel the way was open. One 

 view of Daniel's three hundred pounds of good 

 nature was enough to assure any man of a wel- 

 come, provided he desired and deserved it. 



But the Professors and the wealthy magnate, 

 the retired New Yorker, the two old ladies of a 

 by-gone generation, w r ho still wore lace mitts 

 and side-curls and rather voluminous black silk 

 skirts, and who occasionally screened their fine 

 old faces with small silk parasols with jointed 

 handles, and the two old gentlemen who took 

 pains to inform me that they used to trade with my 

 grandfather, and what a fine courteous old gentle- 

 man he was, and how things had changed since 

 his time, they were more difficult. And when 

 I reflected that the last owner of the farm was a 

 treasurer of the Academy, and a trustee thereof, 

 for many many years superintendent of a Sunday 

 School, and a man of weight (not physical, how- 

 ever, for he was of inconsiderable size) and in- 

 fluence in the community, I realized that compar- 

 isons would be, and in all probability had been, 

 drawn, comparisons which, like comparisons in 

 general, were odious. 



It was really quite a serious question. Whether 



