“Tell me—how did you come by these things?”
“In various ways.”
“Lawfully?”
“Well, I can hardly say; you and I might not agree about the matter.”
“Tell me—did you buy them with your money?”
“Nay; that is not my way. I do not buy or sell.”
“Then you stole them.”
“I told you that we should not agree. But this I know, that they to whom they belonged could do without them better than you and your children.”
“Benjamin,” said Seraiah, “you mean well, and I thank you. But after this bring no more of these gifts, for I cannot receive them. I would not have my Judge say to me, ‘When thou sawest a thief, thou consentedst unto him.’ I had sooner die of hunger—aye, and what is far worse, see my children die—than take that which has not been lawfully acquired.”
“As you will have it,” said Benjamin; “if there were more like you, mayhap I should have been a better man. But meanwhile, the world being what it is, you and yours will have a hard time of it;” and he turned to go away. “And the captain,” he went on—“how does he fare? I hear that things are not going well with him. ’Tis a thousand pities, for a braver man never handled sword.”