He wished he might hear their side of the case and judge it for himself.

It may as well be acknowledged now that John Ellery had a habit of wishing to judge for himself.

This is not always a politic habit in a country minister.
The sun of the following Thursday morning rose behind a curtain of fog as dense as that of the day upon which Ellery arrived.

A flat calm in the forenoon, the wind changed about three o'clock and, beginning with a sharp and sudden squall from the northwest, blew hard and steady.

Yet the fog still cloaked everything and refused to be blown away.
"There's rain astern," observed Captain Zeb, with the air of authority which belongs to seafaring men when speaking of the weather.