When I hesitated, for I was decidedly uncomfortable, he came up to me and laid his hand awkwardly on my arm.
"You'll see something, I warrant, you never see before." It was so evident that he regretted his outbreak that I followed him, and he showed me an odd double ladder set on low wheels which he said he used in trimming the higher parts of his hedge.
"It's my own invention," he said with pride.
"And that"-- he pointed as we came out of the tool shed--"is my house--a good house.

I planned it all myself.

I never needed to take lessons of any carpenter I ever see.

And there's my barns.

What do you think o' my barns?
Ever see any bigger ones?
They ain't any bigger in this country than Old Toombs's barns.