Bart did not seem to think it necessary to affirm or deny.

"Ben away, hain't ye? Must a-gone purty much all over all creation,
these last three months. How's all the folks where you ben?"

No reply. A nod to one or two of the dozen attracted towards him was
the only notice he took of them, seeming not to hear the question and
comments of Tinker. His silence tempted old Cal, the small joker of
the place, to open:

"You's gone an everlastin' while. S'pose you hardly know the place,
it's changed so."

"It has changed some," he answered to this; "its bar-room loafers
are a good deal more unendurable, and its fools, always large, have
increased in size."

A good-natured laugh welcomed this reply.

"There, uncle Cal, it 'pears to me you've got it," said one.

"'Pears to me we've all got it," was the response of that worthy.

"Come in, Bart," said the landlord, "and take something on the
strength o' that."

"Thank you, I will be excused; I have a horror of a sudden death;"
and, taking up his valise, he started across the fields to the near
woods.