Seth

A wave of resentment directed against his friend, the men of the town who were, he thought, perpet- ually talking of nothing, and most of all, against his own habit of silence, made Seth half desperate.

Seth went down the stairway and out at the front door of the hotel muttering with wrath.

Seth arose from his place on the grass and went silently past the men perched upon the railing and into Main Street.

Seth Richmond went slowly along Main Street, past Wacker's Cigar Store and the Town Hall, and into Buckeye Street.

Seth knew Turk Smollet, the half dangerous old wood chopper whose peculiarities added so much of color to the life of the village.

Seth stumbled forward through the half-darkness, feeling himself an outcast in his own town.

"Why, y' are gettin' as big a saint as Seth. Y' are goin' to th' preachin' to-night, I should think.

There was a laugh at this thrust of Adam's, but Seth said, very seriously.

"Nay, Seth, lad; I'm not for laughing at no man's religion.

"There's reason in what thee say'st, Adam," observed Seth, gravely.

"On'y he'll lave the panels out o' th' doors sometimes, eh, Seth?" said Wiry Ben.

But it isna religion as was i' fault there; it was Seth Bede, as was allays a wool-gathering chap, and religion hasna cured him, the more's the pity."