"I often think he's the spirit of the farm," said Hazel shyly, looking to see if Master Nathaniel was admiring her old stone friend. To her amazement, however, as soon as his eyes fell on it he clapped his hand against his thigh, and burst out laughing.
"By the Sun, Moon and Stars!" he cried, "here's the answer to Portunus's riddle: 'the tree yet not a tree, the man yet not a man,'" and he repeated to Hazel the one consecutive sentence that Portunus had managed to enunciate.
"'Who has no arms and yet can strike, who is dumb and yet can tell secrets,'" she repeated after him. "Can you strike and tell secrets, old friend?" she asked whimsically, stroking the grey lichened stone. And then she blushed and laughed as if to apologize for this exhibition of childishness.
With country hospitality Hazel presumed that their uninvited guest had come to spend several days at the farm, and accordingly she had his horse taken to the stables and ordered the best room to be prepared for his use.
The widow, too, gave him a hearty welcome, when he came down to the midday meal in the big kitchen.
When they had been a few minutes at table, Hazel said, "Oh, granny, this gentleman has just come from the farm near Moongrass, where little Master Chanticleer and young Hempen have gone. And he says they were both of them blooming, and sent us kind messages."
"Yes," said Master Nathaniel cheerfully, ever ready to start romancing, "my old friend the farmer is delighted with them. The talk in Lud was that little Chanticleer had been ill, but all I can say is, you must have done wonders for him—his face is as round and plump as a Moongrass cheese."
"Well, I'm glad you're pleased with the young gentleman's looks, sir," said the widow in a gratified voice. But in her eyes there was the gleam of a rather disquieting smile.
Dinner over, the widow and Hazel had to go and attend to their various occupations, and Master Nathaniel went and paced up and down in front of the old house, thinking. Over and over again his thoughts returned to the odd old man, Portunus.