Whatever might have been John's repugnance to making a confidant of the man whom he had known but for half an hour, he acknowledged to himself that the other's curiosity was not only natural but proper.

He could not but know that in appearance and manner he was in marked contrast with those whom the man had so far seen.

He divined the fact that his coming from a great city to settle down in a village town would furnish matter for surprise and conjecture, and felt that it would be to his advantage with the man who was to be his employer that he should be perfectly and obviously frank upon all matters of his own which might be properly mentioned.

He had an instinctive feeling that Harum combined acuteness and suspiciousness to a very large degree, and he had also a feeling that the old man's confidence, once gained, would not be easily shaken.
So he told his hearer so much of his history as he thought pertinent, and David listened without interruption or comment, save an occasional "E-um'm." "And here I am," John remarked in conclusion.
"Here you _be_, fer a fact," said David.

"Wa'al, the's worse places 'n Homeville--after you git used to it," he added in qualification.