`` Most people out our way do mind Ben Butler , '' returned William Jeffers grimly , `` even if he ai n't been heard tell of for twenty years . He was n't the kind you could forget in a hurry . Where 'd he go ? Out to the Kootenay , was n't it ? '' `` Somewhere there . He was a reg ` lar young villain -- up to every kind of mischief . Old Stephen caught him stealing his oats one time and ` stead of giving him a taste of jail for it , as he ought to have done , he just took him right into his family and kept him there for three years . I used to tell him he 'd be sorry for it , but he always persisted that Ben was n't bad at heart and would come out all right some day . No matter what the young varmint did old Stephen would make excuses for him -- ` his ma was dead , ' or he ` had n't had no bringing-up . ' I was thankful when he did finally clear out without doing some penitentiary work . '' `` If poor old Stephen had n't been so open-handed to every unfortunate critter he came across , '' said Gabe , `` he 'd have had more for himself today . '' The whistle of the mail train cut short the discussion of Stephen Strong 's case . In a minute the room was vacant , except for the stranger . When left to himself he also rose and walked out . Turning away from the station , he struck briskly into the Greenvale road . About three miles from the station he halted before a house built close to the road . It was old-fashioned , but large and comfortable-looking , with big barns in the rear and an orchard on the left slope . The house itself was in the shadow of the firs , but the yard lay out in the moonlight and the strange visitor did not elect to cross it . Instead , he turned aside into the shadow of the trees around the garden and , leaning against the old rail fence , gave himself up to contemplation of some kind . There was a light in the kitchen .
The window-blind was not down and he had a fairly good view of the XXXXX .
barns critter excuses hurry moonlight oats room shadow today work