"Didn't you hear me tell you so?"
"Yes, but——"
"Well, then, I did tell you so."
"I am delighted to meet you, sir. I am a school teacher, and I hear that one is wanted in your neighborhood."
He looked at me from head to foot, and replied: "I shouldn't wonder but you are the right man. What's your name?"
I told him and after a few moments of silence he asked, "Any kin to the Luke Hawes that fought in the Creek war?"
"He was my grandfather."
"Ah, hah, and my daddy fit with him—was a lieutenant in his company. Let's shake hands. Whoa, boys." He stopped his horses, got up, shook down the wrinkled legs of his trousers and reached forth his hand.
"You are a stranger in North Caroliny," he said when he had clucked to his horses.
"Yes, I am a stranger everywhere you might put it," I answered. "I am from Alabama, but the people made so much fun of me in the community where I was brought up that I am even a stranger there."