if she saw prowlers with guns. He shaded his eyes with his hand
and scanned the points of the compass through narrowed lids with
concentrated vision. He first caught a gleam of light playing on
a gun-barrel, and then he could discern the figure of a man clad
in hunter's outfit leisurely walking down the lane, toward the
river.

Abram hastily hitched Nancy to the fence. By making the best
time he could, he reached the opposite corner, and was nibbling
the midrib of a young corn blade and placidly viewing the
landscape when the hunter passed.

"Howdy!" he said in an even cordial voice.

The hunter walked on without lifting his eyes or making audible
reply. To Abram's friendly oldfashioned heart this seemed the
rankest discourtesy; and there was a flash in his eye and a
certain quality in his voice he lifted a hand for parley.

"Hold a minute, my friend," he said. "Since you are on my
premises, might I be privileged to ask if you have seen a few
signs 'at I have posted pertainin' to the use of a gun?"

"I am not blind," replied the hunter; "and my education has been
looked after to the extent that I can make out your notices.
From the number and size of them, I think I could do it, old man,
if I had no eyes."

The scarcely suppressed sneer, and the "old man" grated on
Abram's nerves amazingly, for a man of sixty years of peace. The