It was amazing to me that any one in the world should be so much interested in mere brushes--until he actually began to make me feel that brushes were as interesting as anything else! What a strange, little, dried-up old fellow he was, with his balls of muttonchop sidewhiskers, his thick eyebrows, and his lively blue eyes!--a man evidently not readily turned aside by rebuffs.

He had already shown that his wit as a talker had been sharpened by long and varied contact with a world of reluctant purchasers.

I was really curious to know more of him, so I said finally: "See here, Mr.Canfield, it's just noon.

Why not sit down here with me and have a bit of luncheon ?" "Why not ?" he responded with alacrity.

"As the fellow said, why not ?" He unhitched his horse, gave him a drink from the brook, and then tethered him where he could nip the roadside grass.