“You found that eighty-acre lot just as I told ye–didn’t ye?” he asked.
“Precisely.”
“And did your ‘brother Smith’ give it up like a Christian?” he pursued.
“I suppose I am the proprietor of it now,” said the minister, good-naturedly. 132
“And he didn’t charge you anything for giving up what was not his–did he?”
“No,” said the missionary; “he did not charge me anything for the claim, although he seemed to think it right that I should give him something for the improvements.”
“Improvements! Yes, I suppose he expects some pay for the saw logs he stole from the lot, while he had acres on acres of timber of his own. It’s no more’n fair that a Christian man should be paid for the lumber he plunders from other folks’ land. You paid him for that, of course?”
“O, no,” replied Mr. Payson; “he didn’t bring in his bill for that. He had cleared and fenced the ten-acre piece over the river, and he said he didn’t wish to lose his labor.”
“Well,” said Mr. Jones, almost fiercely, “I wasn’t aware, elder, that you employed him to do that little job; I thought that was done last year, ’fore we knew anything ’bout you in these parts.”
“Yes, yes,” said the missionary, coloring.