"Nice tree, is it? What ye was lookin' fer?"
"It's a beauty! Just what we want. I know it isn't just the thing to crack up the goods you're trying to buy from the other fellow, but we want to be perfectly fair with you, Mr. Walker. We want to pay you what the tree is worth. Suppose we go down the hill and look it over, and then you can doubtless give us your price on it."
"'Tain't ne'sary to go down an' look it over. I know the tree ye've got your eye on."
"How do you know?"
"Oh, sort o' guessed it. It's the one by the corner o' the rail fence on the fu'ther side o' the brook as ye go in from the road."
"That's a good guess. It's the very tree. Now then, what about the price?"
The old man pulled on his pipe for a moment with rather more than his usual vigor, then removed it from his mouth and faced his visitors.
"Want to buy that tree, do ye?" he asked.
"Sure we want to buy it."
"Cash down, jedgment note, or what?"