aw, was about $60 to
carry him through the mill; and if he could rake and scrape that much
together, he might wipe off as long a score as he pleased. I had been
dealin' in speckylation, and that's a make or break business, I can tell
you. Well, I got to be about $423.22 wuss than nothin'; but, having
about $90 in hand, I went through the mill without getting cogged the
smallest morsel! A man doos a good business, to my notion, when he can
make 20 cents pay a whull dollar of debt."

"Und you did dat goot business?"

"You may say that; and now I means to make anti-rentism get me a farm
cheap--what _I_ call cheap; and that an't none of your $30 or $40 an
acre, I can tell you!"

It was quite clear that Mr. Joshua Brigham regarded these transactions
as so many Pragmatic Sanctions, that were to clear the moral and legal
atmospheres of any atoms of difficulty that might exist in the forms of
old opinions, to his getting easily out of debt, in the one case, and
suddenly rich in the other. I dare say I looked bewildered, but I
certainly felt so, at thus finding myself face to face with a low knave,
who had a deliberate intention, as I now found, to rob me of a farm. It
is certain that Joshua so imagined, for, inviting me to walk down the
road with him a short distance, he endeavoured to clear up any moral
difficulties that might beset me, by pursuing the subject.

"You see," resumed Joshua, "I will tell you how it is. These Littlepages
have had this land long enough, and it's time to give poor folks a
chance. The young spark that pretends to own all the farms you see, far
and near, never _did_ any thing for 'em in his life; only to be his
father's son. Now, to my notion, a man should do suthin' for his land,
and not be obligated for it to mere natur'. This is a free country, and
what right has one man to land more than another?"

"Or do his shirt, or do his dobacco, or do his coat, or do anyding
else."

"Well, I don't go as far as that. A man has a right to his clothes, and
maybe to a horse or a cow, but he has no right to all the land in
creation. The law gives a right to a cow as ag'in' execution."

"Und doesn't der law gif a right to der landt, too? You most not depend
on der law, if you might succeed."

"We like to get as much law as we can on our side. Americans like law:
now, you'll read in all the books--_our_ books, I mean, them that's
printed here--that the Americans be the most lawful people on airth, and
tha