Anyway, old Captain Savage took me up to North Bridgeboro with him and first I was kind of scared of him, because he had a big red face and he was awful gruff.

Adj. creaking &c v.; stridulous^, harsh, coarse, hoarse, horrisonous^, rough, gruff, grum^, sepulchral, hollow. sharp, high, acute, shrill; trumpet-toned; piercing, ear-piercing, high-pitched, high-toned; cracked; discordant &c 414; cacophonous.