Joe Richards; and him I took a sort of grudge at from the first
beginning. But even then there was a sort of reason for it; for,
at the beginning, when Joe came down upon us here in Charlemont,
he was for riding over people's necks, without so much as asking,
'by your leave.' He had a way about him that vexed me, though we
did not change a word."

"And it's that very way that this person has that I don't like,"
said William Hinkley. "He talks as if he made you, and when you
talk, he smiles as if he thought you were the very worst work that
ever went out of his hands. Then, if he has to say anything, be
it ever so trifling, he says it just as if he was telling you that
the world was to come to an end the day after to-morrow."

"Just the same with Joe Richards. I never could get at him but
twice; though I give him then a mighty smart hammering; and if he
hadn't got under the broadhorn and got drowned;--but this fellow?"

"You'll see him at church to-morrow. I shouldn't wonder if he
preaches; for John Cross was at him about it before I came away.
What's worse, the old man's been asking him to live with us."

"What, here in Charlemont?"

"Yes."

"I'll be sure to lick him then, if he's anything like Joe Richards.
But what's to make him live in Charlemont? Is he to be a preacher
for us?"