Dreaming Bob 131 



" Then will you please let me alone ?" he 

 asked, still staring intently at me. 



" Oh, yes, if you wish it ; but I saw you 

 were a stranger and an old man, and I like 

 to talk to old people," I replied. 



" Why ?" he asked, in reply to my last 

 words, with a slight change of tone indica- 

 tive of a trace of amiability. 



"Because they usually tell me of days 

 long gone by, and of customs now almost 

 forgotten," I told him, adding, " Old people, 

 whether they do or not, seem to know more 

 than men of my own age, and do know more 

 of old times, of course." 



" Umph !" grunted the old man, and then 

 repeated the half-smothered ejaculation sev- 

 eral times, looking, as he did so, towards the 

 three huge beeches that towered above the 

 other trees on the wooded hill-side near by. 

 " I'm not as old as them beeches," he finally 

 remarked. 



" No, I should say not," I replied. 



" Then why don't you go talk to them ? 

 I heard a man say once there's tongues in 

 trees.' " 



I was a good deal taken aback. The old 

 man was getting the best of me, but my 



