Night had descended.
CHAPTER III
THE man stood out in the road looking toward the south. The country under his eye was primitive. The mountains rose in benches, heavily wooded. On one of these benches stood a log house to be seen among the trees, faintly, where the mountain road passed. Behind it, far away, a strip of green lay like a cloth across the very top of the mountain—a bit of farm in which two immense hickory trees stood like pillars. These trees must have been gigantic, since at the great distance they were to the eye huge. The man standing in the road seemed to be considering this country. His face was lifted and, in repose, melancholy.
The woman continued to regard the men standing in the road. Finally she spoke, swinging her body a moment on her sturdy legs.
“You're the new School-teacher, I reckon.”
The man replied, without moving.
“Yes,” he said.
“You're a little behindhand.”