"I can be so obliging. I have lived here two years."
"And how long in the United States?"
"Ten years. And now will you have the goodness to tell me why you wish to know? Will you be so kind as I have been?"
"Well, to be frank, I don't hear a very good report of you."
"But who is appointed to make a report of me? I attend to my own business, and is this a bad report to make of a citizen of the country? If you will have the goodness to pardon me I will ride on."
"Wait a moment. Why are you buying so many cartridges?"
The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders. "Has not the citizen of the country a right to spend his money? I have heard that the Major is polite. He must not be well to-day. Shall I ride on now? Ah, I thank you."
Onward the Frenchman rode, and gazing back at him the Major mused: "The frog-eater gave me the worst of it. But I believe he's a scoundrel all the same. I didn't get at him in the right way. Sorry I said anything to him."