With that she sniffed resignedly, uplifted her brows, carefully freed herself from the caressing arms and picked up the sock and the ball of yarn, both of which had fallen to the floor under Lessie's onslaught. As the girl arose to her feet Granf'er appeared a second time. He had not removed the badge of domestic toil which had enveloped his nether half when I first saw him, and he was dragging a low, shuck-bottomed chair behind him. It came down the step leading from the porch into the house with a bump and a clatter, and Granny blazed out again. "Jer'_bome_. Look at yo'! Tryin' to break that cheer to splinters! Ain't yo' got stren'th to carry ev'n a _cheer_? 'N' is thim dishes washed 'n' put in th' pantry, whur they should orter be?" Granf'er dumbly lifted the chair, conveyed it stiffly to the furthest front corner of the porch, and quietly placed it. Then he turned to me, and with a show of dignity said, in his thin voice-- "Set down!" I at once stepped upon the porch, advanced and shook hands with the old man, then took the proffered seat with a word of thanks. He turned and hurried indoors, returning immediately bearing two other chairs identical with the first. One of these he handed the Dryad, just across the porch entrance, and the other he brought around and gingerly lowered to the floor about a foot from mine. When we were all seated Granf'er stretched one leg out to its fullest length, in order to gain freer access to his pocket, and after some tugging produced a half twist of tobacco. This he silently extended to me with a comical facial contortion which plainly meant that I should take all I wanted. I shook my head, and smiled. "Light Burley!" he explained. "Skace 's hen's teeth. Don't yo' chaw?" "S'pec' ever' man yo' meet to _live_ on terbacker?" snapped Granny, without looking up. "No," I replied; "I smoke." "Then smoke. Yo' come too later fur dinner, so now we'll hev to mix terbacker instid." It dawned upon me that it was a sort of guest rite he was offering me, so I crumbled some of the light yellow leaf into my pipe and fired it. Then he gnawed off a satisfactory chew, and stowed the remainder away. He crossed his legs--by this time I had discovered that he wore boots with his trousers legs stuck down in the tops--in that comfortable, sagging way all old men have, and with one hand in his lap holding his elbow, he plucked gently at the front of his fringe of whiskers while his jaw worked erratically as he slowly adjusted the savory particles in his mouth. No one spoke now for two or three minutes. It certainly was a new experience for me. A swift glance showed me that the Dryad had weighed the situation and was amused. Imps of fun danced in her eyes, and there was a tightening about her mouth which told me that she was holding herself in check with much effort. She was speechless from choice; the other two from nature.