“Um!... Good mornin’, Mr. Dwight. I don’t calc’late we kin do any b-b-business.”
“Why not? What’s wrong with that offer?”
“It hain’t fair,” says Mark.
“What——”
“And you hain’t fair,” says Mark, “and I calc’late, jedgin’ from what you’ve tried to do to-day, that you hain’t n-never been fair with Mr. Bugg.”
“What do you mean, young man? Are you charging me with sharp practice?”
“I’m sayin’,” says Mark, in the gentle way he has when somebody’s done something to make him think they’re cheating him—“I’m sayin’ that you’ve known Silas perty well, and you’ve made perty good m-money off him. You’ve come over here a g-g-good many times, makin’ b’lieve you was doin’ a favor, when you was actually payin’ him a lot less than he could git for his goods if he had known what he was d-doin’.”
“Now, Mark—” says Silas, in that frightened way of his.
“Young man—” began Dwight again. But Mark interrupted.
“I’ve took the t-t-trouble to study the market, Mr. Dwight. I know that bowls is s-s-scarce and in demand. I know what p-prices is b-bein’ paid, and you’re offerin’ about half of ’em, makin’ b’lieve you’re doin’ a favor. You come figgerin’ you could t-take advantage of Silas, and that wasn’t a very large-sized kind of a thing for a man to do, was it? You took advantage. There’s folks would say it wasn’t h-honest.”