He had come to feel the utmost confidence in this big boy who, in the time of their distress, had fetched himself and his poor fainting mother to the nice warm house, where they seemed to have the nicest things to eat he could ever remember of seeing.
Hugh kept an eye about him, half hoping he might run across Thad, although the other had not expected to return before dusk.

No such luck befell him, and so Hugh concluded he must carry out his original scheme, and have only the child for company during his stroll.
Of course, they could not walk at a fast pace, and so it took quite a long time for them to draw near the place where the two roads crossed.

Here, at a point where there was much traffic in vehicles, the smithy of the old deacon stood.

Time was when he attended only to the shoeing of horses, and such other business as a blacksmith would find in his line.

The coming of the auto had made him change his work to some extent; so he kept a line of rubber tires and tubes in his shop, and was capable of doing all ordinary repairing, such as might be found necessary after a minor accident to a car on the road.
It was pleasant, indeed, when the wintry air was so keen, to step up to the open doors of the shop, and see that seething fire in the forge beyond the grim anvil.