It was, perhaps, a natural, though very eccentric
rebound from the hard, practical, unimaginative New-England mind
which surrounded us; yet I look back upon it with a kind of wonder.
I was then, as you know, unformed mentally, and might have
been so still, but for the experiences of the A. C."
Mr. Johnson shifted his position, a little impatiently. Eunice
looked at him with laughing eyes, and shook her finger with a mock
threat.
"Shelldrake," continued Mr. Billings, without noticing this by-
play, "was a man of more pretence than real cultivation, as I
afterwards discovered. He was in good circumstances, and always
glad to receive us at his house, as this made him, virtually, the
chief of our tribe, and the outlay for refreshments involved only
the apples from his own orchard and water from his well. There was
an entire absence of conventionality at our meetings, and this,
conpared with the somewhat stiff society of the village, was
really an attraction. There was a mystic bond of union in our
ideas: we discussed life, love, religion, and the future state, not
only with the utmost candor, but with a warmth of feeling which, in
many of us, was genuine.
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