they look like, you kin 'most walk atop o' them. You 

 got ter kind o' shape 'em in yer eye, an' when you got 

 that fixed you kin pick 'em up 'most anywhere ! " 



It cost Rocky an effort to volunteer anything. 

 There were others always ready to talk and advise ; 

 but they were no help. It was Rocky himself who 

 once said that " the man who's allus offerin' his 

 advice fer nothin' 's askin' 'bout 's much 's it's worth." 

 He seemed to run dry of words like an overdrawn 

 well. For several days he took no further notice of 

 me, apparently having forgotten my existence or 

 repented his good nature. Once, when in reply to 

 a question, I was owning up to the hopes and chances 

 and failures of the day, I caught his attentive look 

 turned on me and was conscious of it and a little 

 apprehensive for the rest of the evening ; but nothing 

 happened. 



The following evening however it came out. I 

 had felt that that look meant something, and that 

 sooner or later I would catch it. It was characteristic 

 of him that he could always wait, and I never felt 

 quite safe with him never comfortably sure that 

 something was not being saved up for me for some 

 mistake perhaps days old. He was not to be hurried, 

 I nor was he to be put off, and nobody ever interrupted 

 him or headed him off. His quiet voice was never 

 raised, and the lazy gentleness never disturbed ; he 

 seemed to know exactly what he wanted to say, and 

 to have opening and attention waiting for him. I 

 suppose it was partly because he spoke so seldom': 

 but there was something else too the something that 



