He would be sitting "into the fire" browning his corduroy trousers, and he would get up slowly.

Then he gazed solemnly before him for a time, and after that, if you watched him narrowly, you would see that he was really moving to the door.

Another member of the family took the vacant seat with the same precautions.

Will'um, the eldest, has a gun, which customarily stands behind the old eight-day clock; and he takes it with him to the garden to shoot the blackbirds.

Long before Will'um is ready to let fly, the blackbirds have gone away; and so the gun is never, never fired: but there is a determined look on Will'um's face when he returns from the garden.
In the stormy days of his youth the old man had been a "Black Nib." The Black Nibs were the persons who agitated against the French war; and the public feeling against them ran strong and deep.