But the old man's vocabulary was "picturesque"; when he was describing exciting events he was apt to drift into language that was more forceful than choice.

It will be best therefore to give this account substantially as years later--long after Grandsir Billy had passed away--the old Squire told it one afternoon when he and I were driving home together from a field day of the grange.
It seems that back in the days when the county was first settled the pioneers found the ponds and streams in peaceful possession of an ancient trapper whom they called Daddy Goss.

Trapping was his business; he did nothing else.

Every fall and winter while he was tending his trap lines he used to stay for a week or a month at a time at the settlers' houses.

Frequently the wife of a settler at whose house he was staying would have to take drastic measures to get rid of him; no gentler measures than taking his chair and his plate away from the table or putting his bundle of things out on the doorstep would move him.