the hoss, without I'm
satisfied you've the best right to him."

"That's all I ask, Mr. Peakslow; I want only what belongs to me. If you
are a loser, you must look for redress to the man who sold you my
property; and he must go back on the next man."

"How's that?" put in Zeph, grinning over his grease-pot. "Pa thinks he's
got a good deal better hoss than he put away; and you ain't agoin' to
crowd him out of a good bargain, I bet!"

"Hold your tongue!" growled Peakslow. "I can fight my own battles,
without any of your tongue. I put away a pooty good hoss, and I gin
fifteen dollars to boot."

"What man did you trade with?" Jack inquired.

"A truckman in Chicago. He liked my hoss, and I liked hisn, and we
swapped. He wanted twenty dollars, I offered him ten, and we split the
difference. He won't want to give me back my hoss and my money, now; and
ye can't blame him. And the next man won't want to satisfy _him_. Grant
the hoss is stole, for the sake of the argyment," said Peakslow. "I
maintain that when an animal that's been stole, and sold, and traded,
finally gits into an honest man's hands, it's right he should stay
there."

"Even if it's your horse, and the honest man who gets him is your
neighbor?" queried Jack.

"I do'no'--wal--yes!" said Peakslow. "It's a hard case, but no harder
one way than t' other."

"But the law looks at it in only one way," replied Jack. "And with
reason. Men must be careful how they deal with thieves or get hold of
stolen property. How happens it that you, Mr. Peakslow, didn't know that
such a horse had been stolen? Some of your neighbors knew it very well."

"Some of my neighbors I don't have nothin' to say to," answered
Peakslow, gruffly. "If you mean the Bettersons, they're a pack of
thieves and robbers themselves, and I don't swap words with none of 'em,
without 't is to tell 'em my mind; that I do, when I have a chance."

"You use pretty strong language when you call them thieves and robbers,
Mr. Peakslow."

"Strong or not, it's the truth. Hain't they cheated me out o' the best
part of my farm?"

"The Bettersons--cheated you!" exclaimed Jack.

They were now on the way to the pasture; and Peakslow, in a sort of
lurid excitement, pointed to the boundary fence.

"My line, by right, runs five or six rod t' other side. I took up my
claim here, and Betterson bought hisn, 'fore ever the guv'ment survey
run through. That survey fixed my line 'way over yender in their
cornfield.