trunks.

At the noon dinner-table Mr. Smith met Mr. Frank Blaisdell. He was a
portly man with rather thick gray hair and "mutton-chop" gray
whiskers. He ate very fast, and a great deal, yet he still found time
to talk interestedly with his new boarder.

He was plainly a man of decided opinions--opinions which he did not
hesitate to express, and which he emphasized with resounding thumps of
his fists on the table. The first time he did this, Mr. Smith, taken
utterly by surprise, was guilty of a visible start. After that he
learned to accept them with the serenity evinced by the rest of the
family.

When the dinner was over, Mr. Smith knew (if he could remember them)
the current market prices of beans, corn, potatoes, sugar, and flour;
and he knew (again if he could remember) why some of these commodities
were higher, and some lower, than they had been the week before. In a
way, Mr. John Smith was interested. That stocks and bonds fluctuated,
he was well aware. That "wheat" could be cornered, he realized. But of
the ups and downs of corn and beans as seen by the retail grocer he
knew very little. That is, he had known very little until after that
dinner with Mr. Frank Blaisdell.

It was that afternoon that Mr. Smith began systematically to gather
material for his Blaisdell book. He would first visit by turns all the
Hillerton Blaisdells, he decided; then, when he had exhausted their
resources, he would, of course, turn to the town records and
cemeteries of Hillerton and the neighboring villages.