Everybody started, for the man was Ozias Lamb, Abel Edwards's brother-in-law.
"What ye laughin' at ?" inquired Simon Basset, defiantly; but he edged his chair away a little at the same time.

Ozias Lamb had the reputation of a very high temper.
"Mebbe," said Ozias Lamb, "somebody killed poor Abel for his mortgage.

I dun'no' of anything else he had." Ozias laughed again.
He was a stout, squat man, leaning forward upon his knees as he sat, with a complete subsidence of all his muscles, which showed that it was his accustomed attitude.

Just in that way had Ozias Lamb sat and cobbled shoes on his lapboard for nearly forty years.

He was almost resolved into a statue illustrative of his own toil.