What is the main conflict in Blackberry Winter by Robert Penn Warren?

This novelette is a recollection of one memorable day in the childhood of Seth, the narrator, then nine years old. On this unseasonably cold day Seth's mother forbids him to go outside barefoot, but he disobeys her, wanting to "rub [his] feet over the wet shivery grass and make the perfect mark of [his] foot in the smooth, creamy, red mud." But before he can get out the door, Seth notices something unusual: "Out of the window on the north side of the fireplace I could see the man...still far off, come along by the path of the woods." The novel's conflict is centered around Seth's interactions with the strange man, who seems ominous and is looking for work.