You like them ?" "I love them," he said simply.

"I know them well, and they know me.

You see I have been in this district so long now, and have walked about so much, that the very wood cutters know me; and the drivers give me lifts on their piles of timber." "You are not surly with the poor people, then ?" said Bernardine; "though I must say I cannot imagine you being genial.

Were you ever genial, I wonder ?" "I don't think that has ever been laid to my charge," he answered.
The time passed away pleasantly.

The Disagreeable Man was scarcely himself to-day; or was it that he was more like himself?
He seemed in a boyish mood; he made fun out of nothing, and laughed with such young fresh laughter, that even August, the grave blue-spectacled driver, was moved to mirth.