The master could not dismiss Hannah wholly from his mind.

He would at least read the mystery of her life, if Shocky could be prevailed on to furnish the clue.
"Poor old tree!" said Shocky, pointing to a crooked and gnarled elm standing by itself in the middle of a field.

For when the elm, naturally the most graceful of trees, once gets a "bad set," it can grow to be the most deformed.

This solitary tree had not a single straight limb.
"Why do you say 'poor old tree' ?" asked Ralph.
"'Cause it's lonesome.

All its old friends is dead and chopped down, and there's their stumps a-standin' jes like grave-stones.