On the return from one of these parochial drives, not long after their
establishment at Ashfield, it happened that the good parson and his wife
were not a little startled at sight of a stranger lounging familiarly at
their door. A little roof jutted out over the entrance to the parsonage,
without any apparent support, and flanking the door were two plank
seats, with their ends toward the street, cut away into the shape of
those "settles" which used to be seen in country taverns, and which here
seemed to invite a quiet out-of-door gossip. But the grave manner of the
parson had never invited to a very familiar use of this loitering-place,
even by the most devoted of the parishioners; and the appearance of a
stranger of some two-and-thirty years, with something in his manner, as
much as in his dress, which told of large familiarity with the world,
lounging upon this little porch, had amazed the passers-by, as much as
it now did the couple who drove up slowly in the square-topped chaise.
"Who can it be, Benjamin?" says Rachel.
"I really can't say," returns the parson.
"He seems very much at home, my dear,"--as indeed he does, with his feet
stretched out upon the bench, and eyeing curiously the approaching
vehicle.
As it draws near, his observation being apparently satisfactory, he
walks briskly down to the gate, and greets the parson with,--
"My dear Johns, I'm delighted to see you!"