The setting of "The Whippoorwills in the Hills," typical territory for one of Derleth's supernatural tales, is a rural New England where people speak an archaic diction, as in "him as was Abel Harrop, was took off by Them from Aoutside. He called 'em an' They come." Abel Harrop's farmhouse is nestled among some hills in a hollow called Harrop's Pocket, with the nearest neighbor more than a mile away over a hill and down a ridge. Abel's property is itself a bit unusual; it may once have been a farm, but Abel plainly did no farming and kept no livestock. The farmhouse's dining room has been converted into a study and "was filled with books—on crude, home-made shelves, on boxes, chairs, a secretaire, and a table. There were even piles of them on the floor, and one book lay open on the table, just the...