I thought as much of Marcellus Hall as any man on earth, and nobody feels worse about his bein' took than I do.

But I'm just sayin' what we both know's a fact.

He didn't want to see us; he didn't want to see nobody.

Since his wife died he lived alone in that house, except for a housekeeper and that stepchild, and never went anywhere or had anybody come to see him if he could help it.

A reg'lar hermit--that's what he was, a hermit, like Peleg Myrick down to Setuckit P'int.