"Ay, ay," he answered, "we have many things in common with kingdoms as men, I must allow; but why should we have anything in common of this aristocratic natur'? A free country should contain freemen, and how can a man be free if he doesn't own the land out of which he makes his living?"
"Und if he makes his lifin' out of anoder man's land, he might be honest enough to pay for its use, I dinks."
"But, we hold it ought not to be another man's land, but the land of him who works it."
"Dell me dis—dost you efer let out a field to a poor neighbor on shares?"
"Sartain; we will do that, both to accommodate folks, and to get crops when we are crowded with work ourselves."
"Und why might not all dat crop pelong to him dat works de field?"
"Oh! that's doin' business on a small scale, and can't do anybody harm. But the American institutions never intended that there should be a great privileged class among us, like the lords in Europe."
"Did you efer haf any difficulty in getting your hire for a field dat might be so let out?"
"Sartain. There's miserable neighbors as well as them that isn't. I had to sue the very last chap I had such dealin's with."
"Und dit das law let you haf your money?"