“No; he may be a great deal worse; owning land don’t make a man any better in the sight of God, and it ought not to in the sight of men.”
“I always thought that anybody who owned land was next to the quality; ain’t the quality better?”
“No.”
“I always thought they were kind of little kings.”
“Kings are no better.”
“O, yes, grandfather, kings must be better, because the Bible tells about ‘em; and Mr. Holmes always used to say, his most sacred majesty.”
“All moonshine; half of ‘em are great rascals. Being a king don’t make a man better or worse any more than owning land does. It only gives them a better chance to act out their true characters.”
“If a king was no more and no better than a man, how could he cure the king’s evil?”
“No king ever did cure it, and it’s my opinion it never was cured.”
“O, yes, there was Farmer Vinal’s son, whose father I worked for, had a great swelling on his neck, and his father carried him into the procession when the king went to the tower, and the king touched it and it went away.”