"There's nothing to tell," he said. "I think it was fancy, mostly, and
folly; but it's the realest thing in my long life, my dear."
A long pause. I kept silence. "Hurry no man's cattle" is a good motto,
especially with old people.
"I remember," he said in the dreamy tone always promising so well to the
ear that a story delighteth--"I remember, when I was a young man, I was
very lonely indeed. I never had a sweetheart. I was always lame, my
dear, from quite a boy; and the girls used to laugh at me."