If you need references, I can procure them from New York or
Boston."
The stranger was a tall, lean-faced man of forty or forty-five, well
dressed, with a brusque yet pleasant manner of speech. His moustache and
beard were black and quite heavy. Mr. Crow eyed him quietly for a
moment.
"I don't reckon I'll ask fer references. Our rates are six dollars a
week, board an' room. Childern bother you?"
"Not at all. Have you any?"
"Some, more or less. They're mostly grown."
"I will take board and room for two weeks, at least," said Mr. Gregory,
who seemed to be a man of action.
For almost a week the insurance agent plied his vocation assiduously but
fruitlessly. The farmers and the citizens of Tinkletown were slow to
take up insurance. They would talk crops and politics with the obliging
Mr. Gregory, but that was all. And yet, his suavity won for him many
admirers. There were not a few who promised to give him their insurance
if they concluded to "take any out." Only one man in town was willing to
be insured, and he was too old to be comforting. Mr. Calligan was
reputed to be one hundred and three years of age; and he wanted the
twenty-year endowment plan. Gregory popularised himself at the Crow home
by paying for his room in advance. Moreover, he was an affable chap with
a fund of good stories straight from Broadway.
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