rail fence wrapped in creepers, and a solitary chestnut tree in
full bloom. Farther away swept the freshly ploughed ground over
which passed the moving figures of the labourers transplanting
the young crop. Of them all, Carraway saw but a single worker--in
reality, only one among the daily toilers in the field, moulded
physically perhaps in a finer shape than they, and limned in the
lawyer's mental vision against a century of the brilliant if
tragic history of his race. As he moved slowly along between the
even rows, dropping from time to time a plant into one of the
small holes dug before him, and pausing with the basket on his
arm to settle the earth carefully with his foot, he seemed,
indeed, as much the product of the soil upon which he stood as
did the great white chestnut growing beside the road. In his
pose, in his walk, in the careless carriage of his head, there
was something of the large freedom of the elements.

"A dangerous young giant," observed the lawyer slowly, letting
his glasses fall before his eyes. "A monumental Blake, as it
were. Well, as I have remarked before upon occasions, blood will
tell, even at the dregs."

"He's the very spit of his pa, that's so," replied Peterkin, "an'
though it's no business of mine, I'm afeared he's got the old
gentleman's dry throat along with it. Lord! Lord! I've always
stood it out that it's better to water yo' mouth with tobaccy
than to burn it up with sperits." He checked himself and fell
back hastily, for young Blake, after a single glance at the west,
had tossed his basket carelessly aside, and was striding
vigorously across the field.