"I'm blessed if you 'aint sewin' white buttons on with black thread. Is anybody dead in the family, or 'aint you feelin' well this mornin'?" 62 "Nicholas Burke, what in the name of conscience does all this idiotic performance mean, I'd like to know?" 80 "Oh well, I always believe that two young married people should start out by themselves, and then if they get into a family row it won't scandalize the parish" 126 "I 'aint a chicken no more, Mrs. Betty, and I've 'most forgot how to do a bit of courtin'" 140 "I consider it a shame and a disgrace to the parish to have our rector in filthy clothes, drawing stone with a lot of ruffians" 248 "I've got a hunch, Sylvester Bascom, that it'll be you that'll have the last word, after all" 280 "Hepsey Burke, for all your molasses and the little bit of vinegar you say you keep by you, 'There are no flies on you' as Nickey would put it" 308 [Illustration] CHAPTER I HEPSEY BURKE The noisy, loose-jointed train pulled out of the station, leaving behind it a solitary young man, enveloped in smoke and cinders. In the middle of the platform stood a little building with a curb roof, pointed at both ends like a Noah's Ark; and the visitor felt that if he could only manage to lift up one side of the roof he would find the animals "two by two," together with the cylindrical Noah and the rest of his family. There was no one in sight but the station-master, who called out from the ticket office: "Did you want to go to the village? The 'bus won't be down till the next train: but maybe you can ride up on the ice wagon." "Thanks," the stranger replied. "I think I'll wait for the 'bus, if it's not too long." "Twenty minutes or so, if Sam don't have to collect the passengers goin' West, and wait for a lot o' women that forget their handbags and have to get out and go back after 'em."