`` Unfortunately it has to be talked of sometimes , Mr. Armstrong , '' I said . `` Yes , it seems to be a necessary evil , master , '' he acknowledged . `` But I know what business you 've come upon , and we can settle it in five minutes after the moon 's well up . I 'll just agree to everything you and the other two trustees want . Lord knows why they ever put me on the school board . Maybe it 's because I 'm so ornamental . They wanted one good-looking man , I reckon . '' His low chuckle , so full of mirth and so free from malice , was infectious . I laughed also , as I sat down in the hop-vine arbour . `` Now , you need n't talk if you do n't want to , '' he said . `` And I wo n't . We 'll just sit here , sociable like , and if we think of anything worth while to say we 'll say it . Otherwise , not . If you can sit in silence with a person for half an hour and feel comfortable , you and that person can be friends . If you ca n't , friends you 'll never be , and you need n't waste time in trying . '' Abel and I passed successfully the test of silence that evening in the hop-vine arbour . I was strangely content to sit and think -- something I had not cared to do lately . A peace , long unknown to my stormy soul , seemed hovering near it . The garden was steeped in it ; old Abel 's personality radiated it . I looked about me and wondered whence came the charm of that tangled , unworldly spot .
`` Nice and far XXXXX the market-place is n't it ? ''
If about as because from in like near on upon