"Is it? Do your folks live there?"
"No, I'm travelling on business."
"What's your business?" asked the farmer.
The question was an abrupt one, but was not meant to be rude. In country towns everybody feels that he has a right to become acquainted with the business of any one with whom he comes in contact, even in its minutest details. Walter understood this, having himself lived in a country village, and answered without taking offence:—
"I am a book-agent."
"Be you? How do you make it pay?"
"Pretty well, but I can tell better by and by; I've only been in it a week."
"You're pretty young to be a book-peddler Where do your folks live?"
"In New York."
"You've come some ways from home."