The whole farmstead, indeed, looked tired.

As for the house and barn, they had reached that final stage of decay in which the best thing that could be said of them was that they were picturesque.
Everything was as different from the farm of the energetic and joyous Stanleys, whose work I had shared only a few days before, as anything that could be imagined.
Now, my usual way of getting into step with people is simplicity itself.
I take off my coat and go to work with them and the first thing I know we have become first-rate friends.

One doesn't dream of the possibilities of companionship in labour until he has tried it.
But how shall one get into step with a man who is not stepping?
On the porch of the farmhouse, there in the mid-afternoon, a man sat idly; and children were at play in the yard.

I went in at the gate, not knowing in the least what I should say or do, but determined to get hold of the problem somewhere.

As I approached the step, I swung my bag from my shoulder.
"Don't want to buy nothin'," said the man.
"Well," said I, "that is fortunate, for I have nothing to sell.