If anything, indeed, he looked too comfortable, too placid.

A little ambition, a little restlessness, would perhaps have been good for him.
By degrees he got nearer to the house; but it was by degrees only, for he stayed to look over every gate, and up into almost every tree.

He stopped to listen as his ear caught the sound of hoofs on the distant road, and again at the faint noise of a gun fired a mile away.

At the corner of a field a team of horses--his own--were resting awhile as the carter and his lad ate their luncheon.

Harry stayed to talk to the man, and yet again at the barn door to speak to his men at work within with the winnowing machine.