184 Windfalls 



occurred to any one but Humphrey. He 

 had heard, perhaps, of the far better con- 

 ditions that prevailed in Europe, and, cheer- 

 fully accepting poverty, lived a jollier life 

 on what he was permitted to glean from the 

 fields every one of which he knew as no 

 one else did than did nine-tenths of the 

 owners of these broad acres. He lived to 

 be ninety, and at peace with himself. When 

 I knew him he was so bent that his spine 

 formed a considerable are of a circle, and so 

 brought his face towards the ground and not 

 very far from it. I have never seen any 

 other man or woman so nearly " bent 

 double," to use an inaccurate phrase ; and 

 of course his gleaning days were over, but 

 not his days of usefulness and independence. 

 His knowledge of gardening was encyclo- 

 pedic, and to the end he supported himself by 

 caring for such enclosures. Never a weed grew 

 where Humphrey attended. The children 

 thought he used his huge hooked nose as a hoe, 

 and we teased him a little on this score; but he 

 was our stanchest friend, and many the quaint 

 story he told when taking his nooning, and 

 many the old pewter button, shoe-buckle, or 

 copper coin and other colonial trifle he gave us. 



