“Indeed?”
“Rayther, I shed say.”
“Is he what you call a poor man?”
“All that I reckon. He hain’t got nothin’, as I knows on, ’ceptin’ his old critter o’ a hoss, an’ his clarin’ o’ a couple o’ acres or thereabout; besides, he only squats upon that.”
“He’s only a squatter, then?”
“That’s all, stranger; tho’ I reckon he considers the clarin’ as much his own as I do my bit o’ ground, that’s been bought an’ paid for.”
“Indeed?”
“Yes—I shedn’t like to be the party that would buy it over his head.”
The speaker accompanied these words with a significant glance, which seemed to say, “I wonder if that’s his business here.”
“Has he any family?”