"Is it subjecting you to any great inconvenience to wait a couple of months for it? That is what I mean."
"My circumstances are not such," returned the squire, haughtily, "as to make me feel even the loss of thirty dollars."
"I wish I could say the same, but I cannot. Since, then, it will occasion you no inconvenience, I ask you as a favor that you will let the balance rest for two months."
Squire Hudson saw that he was cornered; but none the less was he disposed to yield the point. He even felt provoked with the farmer for having forced from him an acknowledgment that he did not need the money he so persistently demanded.
"I told you before," he said, "that it was not the amount of money, but the principle, that I care for. You cannot have forgotten this."
"I don't see how any principle is involved, Squire Hudson."
"You look at the matter solely from a debtor's point of view. If you held the mortgage, instead of myself, you would change your view very quickly."
"I don't think I should," said the farmer, slowly. "I would be considerate to a poor neighbor, even if it did inconvenience me a little."
"The poor neighbor should not have borrowed money on which he was unable to pay interest," said Squire Hudson, severely.
"How could I anticipate the drought that has diminished my crops?" said Mark Nelson, with spirit.