"Some time ago."
"Then you knew the old family, likely?"
"Yes, I did."
"There was fine stuff in them Landholms," said the old man, perhaps supplied with the figure by the timber he was nailing, — "real what I call good stuff — parents and children. There was a great deal of good in all of 'em; only the boys took notions they wouldn't be nothin' but ministers or lawyers or some sort o' people that wears black coats and don't have to roll up their trowsers for nothin'. They were clever lads, too. I don't mean to say nothin' agin 'em."
"Do you know how they're gettin' on?" he asked after a pause on his part and on Elizabeth's.
"I believe Asahel is with his father, — gone West."
"Ay, ay; but I mean the others — them two that went to College. I ha'n't seen Rufus for a great spell — I went down and fetched up Winthrop when his mother died."
"Will you have paint enough to finish that gunwale?"
"Guess so," said the old man looking into his paint-pot.
"There's more oil in the bottle. What be them two doing now?
Winthrop's a lawyer, ain't he?"
"Yes."