ist ott."

"It is odd, but it's true as gospel. _Why_, it may not be so easy to
tell. Many men, many minds, you know. Some folks don't like him because
he lives in a big house; some hate him because they think he is better
off than they are themselves; others mistrust him because he wears a
fine coat; and some pretend to laugh at him because he got his property
from his father, and grand'ther, and so on, and didn't make it himself.
Accordin' to some folks' notions, now-a-days, a man ought to enj'y only
the property he heaps together himself."

"If dis be so, your Herr Littlebage ist no arisdograt."

"Wa-a-l, that isn't the idee, hereaway. We have had a great many
meetin's, latterly, about the right of the people to their farms; and
there has been a good deal of talk at them meetin's consarnin'
aristocracy and feudal tenors; do you know what a feudal tenor is, too?"

"Ja; dere ist moch of dat in Teutchland--in mine coontry. It ist not
ferry easy to explain it in a few vords, but der brincipal ding ist dat
der vassal owes a serfice to hist lort. In de olten dimes dis serfice
vast military, und dere ist someding of dat now. It ist de noples who
owe der feudal serfice, brincipally, in mine coontry, and dey owes it to
de kings and brinces."

"And don't you call giving a chicken for rent feudal service, in
Germany?"

Uncle Ro and I laughed, in spite of our efforts to the contrary, there
being a pathos in this question that was supremely ridiculous. Curbing
his merriment, however, as soon as he could, my uncle answered the
question.

"If der landlordt hast a right to coome and dake as many chickens as he
bleases, und ast often ast he bleases, den dat wouldt look like a feudal
right; but if de lease says dat so many chickens moost be paid a-year,
for der rent, vhy dat ist all der same as baying so much moneys; und it
might be easier for der tenant to bay in chicken ast it might be to bay
in der silver. Vhen a man canst bay his debts in vhat he makes himself,
he ist ferry interpentent."

"It does seem so, I vow! Yet there's folks about here, and some at
Albany, that call it feudal for a man to have to carry a pair of fowls
to the landlord's office, and the landlord an aristocrat for asking it!"

"But der man canst sent a poy, or a gal, or a nigger, wid his fowls, if
he bleases?"

"Sartain; all that is asked is that the fowls should come."

"Und vhen der batroon might owe hist tailor, or hist shoemaker, must he
not