Today the colonel hoped to work on his fern bed but the weather being
what it is he takes instead from his well-filled book shelves "The
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" and settles down to a day of
solid joy.
In the big, softly stained house that stands in the solemn shade of
immense pines, just diagonally across from the colonel's house, lives
and labors Joshua Stillman, a man with the most wonderful memory, the
readiest tongue when there is real need of it, a little man brimful of
the most varied information and the sharpest humor.
For forty years and more he has been Green Valley's self-appointed
librarian. He draws no salary except the joy of doing what he loves to
do and he squanders, as his friends truly suspect, much secret money of
his own on it. The library is housed in the old church in a room so
small and dark that it hides the big work of this little man.
Joshua Stillman must be old but nobody ever thinks of what his age
might be, he is so very much alive. He goes to the city every day and
comes back early every afternoon. As he so seldom talks about himself
nobody knows exactly what he does except that it has to do with books
and small print.
Like Madam Howe, Joshua Stillman comes from the Revolutionary War
district and has great family traditions to uphold.
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