Read the excerpt below, then answer the question.

The Tinker's Willow

Edward W. Frentz



One day, when my Grandfather Gifford was about seven years old, he looked across the road to his father's blacksmith shop, and seeing someone sitting on the bench by the door, went over to learn who it was.

He found a little old man, with thick, bushy eyebrows and bright blue eyes. His clothes were made all of leather, which creaked and rattled when he moved. By his side was a partly open pack, in which grandfather could see curious tools and sheets of shiny tin. By that he knew that the man was the traveling tinker, who came once or twice a year to mend leaky pans and pails, and of whom he had heard his mother speak.

The old man was eating his luncheon - a slice or two of bread, a bit of cold meat, and a cold potato; and because it seemed so poor a luncheon, grandfather went back to the house and brought two big apples from the cellar. The old man thanked him and ate the apples. Then he got up, brushed the bread crumbs from his leather breeches, and taking a little tin dipper from his pack, went down to the brook for a drink of water. When he had had his fill, he came back to the bench and sat down.



Which of the following describes the characters in this excerpt?

a young boy and his father the blacksmith
a blacksmith
an old tinker
a young boy and an old tinker