Once upon a time in Colorado lived a man named Abednego Danner and his wife,  Matilda. Abednego Danner was a professor of biology in a small college in the town  of Indian Creek. He was a spindling wisp of a man, with a nature drawn well into  itself by the assaults of the world and particularly of the grim Mrs. Danner, who  understood nothing and undertook all. Nevertheless these two lived modestly in a  frame house on the hem of Indian Creek and they appeared to be a settled and  peaceful couple.