“I am Robert Walden from Rumford. I think you know my father.”
“Yes, indeed. Please walk in. Son of my friend Joshua Walden? I am glad to see you,” said Mr. Adams with a hearty shake of the hand.
“I have brought you a cheese which my father wishes you to accept with his compliments.”
“That is just like him; he always brings us something. Please say to him that Mrs. Adams and myself greatly appreciate his kind remembrance of us.”
A tall lady with a comely countenance was descending the hall stairs.
“Wife, this is Mr. Walden, son of our old friend; just see what he has brought us.”
Robert lifted his hat and was recognized by a gracious courtesy.
“How good everybody is to us. The ravens fed Elijah, but I don’t believe they brought cheese to him. We shall be reminded of your kindness every time we sit down to a meal,” said Mrs. Adams.
Robert thought he never had seen a smile more gracious than that upon her pale, careworn countenance.[13] He noticed that everything about the room was plain, but neat and tidy. Upon a shelf were the Bible, Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, and a volume of Reverend Mr. South’s sermons. Robert remembered his father said Mrs. Adams was the daughter of Reverend Mr. Checkley, minister of the New South Meetinghouse, and that Mr. Adams went to meeting there. Upon the table were law books, pamphlets, papers, letters, and newspapers. He saw that some of the letters bore the London postmark. He remembered his father said Mr. Adams had not much money; that he was so dead in earnest in maintaining the rights of the people he had little time to attend to his own affairs.
“Will you be in town through the week and over the Sabbath?” Mr. Adams asked.