His hand felt rather cold.

I suppose the sight of me and the home speech brought his early life vividly back to him.

He swallowed hard several times without speaking, and again I saw his wrinkled face working.

He let go at last, went heavily back and picked up his hoe; and as we drove on I saw him hoeing stolidly.
The driver said that he had cleared up the little farm and built the log house and barn all by his own labor.

For five years he had lived alone, but later he had married the widow of a Scotch immigrant.