He was a member of the board of school trustees in Stillwater , and I had not met him before this late May evening , when I had gone down to confer with him upon some small matter of business . For I was `` the new schoolmaster '' in Stillwater , having taken the school for the summer term . It was a rather lonely country district -- a fact of which I was glad , for life had been going somewhat awry with me and my heart was sore and rebellious over many things that have nothing to do with this narration . Stillwater offered time and opportunity for healing and counsel . Yet , looking back , I doubt if I should have found either had it not been for Abel and his beloved garden . Abel Armstrong -LRB- he was always called `` Old Abel '' , though he was barely sixty -RRB- lived in a quaint , gray house close by the harbour shore . I heard a good deal about him before I saw him . He was called `` queer '' , but Stillwater folks seemed to be very fond of him . He and his sister , Tamzine , lived together ; she , so my garrulous landlady informed me , had not been sound of mind at times for many years ; but she was all right now , only odd and quiet . Abel had gone to college for a year when he was young , but had given it up when Tamzine `` went crazy '' . There was no one else to look after her . Abel had settled down to it with apparent content : at least he had never complained . `` Always took things easy , Abel did , '' said Mrs. Campbell . `` Never seemed to worry over disappointments and trials as most folks do . Seems to me that as long as Abel Armstrong can stride up and down in that garden of his , reciting poetry and speeches , or talking to that yaller cat of his as if it was a human , he does n't care much how the world wags on . He never had much git-up-and-git . His father was a hustler , but the family did n't take after him . They all favoured the mother 's people -- sorter shiftless and dreamy . ` Taint the way to git on in this world . '' No , good and worthy Mrs. Campbell .
It was not the way to get on in your world ; but there are other worlds where getting on is estimated by different standards , and Abel XXXXX lived in one of these -- a world far beyond the ken of the thrifty Stillwater farmers and fishers .
Abel Armstrong Campbell Tamzine git-up-and-git landlady sorter wags yaller year