"Has he oppressed you?"
"Yes."
"Ah! I was not aware of that. I didn't know that you had any claims upon him as an almoner of heaven."
"My claims are those of common humanity. But you shall know all, and judge for yourself. I am a poor man"——
"Well"——
"With a wife and four children, whom I love as tenderly as Clinton, or any other purse-proud oppressor of the poor can possibly love his wife and children. They are dependent for daily bread upon my daily labour. With the sweat of my brow, I keep hunger from my door, and cold from entering therein."
"An independent man," said the other.
"Yes, an independent man; as independent as any nabob in the land."
"Do let the nabobs alone," was smilingly answered to this. "If you are independent, why care for them? Why permit yourself to be fretted because others are blessed by Providence with a greater abundance of worldly goods? There is danger, in this thing, of going beyond the nabobs, and arraigning the wisdom of Him who setteth up whom he will, and whose bounty feeds even the young ravens. So go on with your story. What is the crime that Mr. Clinton has committed against you and humanity?"
"I am a poor man, as I said."