Some Sample Walks 47 



farmer with whom I was talking followed 



my look and explained, "That's old B . 



They made him probate clerk. He's rich. 

 Why, I've known that feller to go into that 

 cubby-hole after supper and make two dol- 

 lars 'fore he went to bed." The earnest- 

 ness of the statement was convincing : the 

 two dollars were wealth. 



In these villages, too, you meet the 

 shady lawyer. If he were taxed with 

 sharp practice, he would probably ask how 

 he was expected to live in such a place 

 if he didn't make trouble. Does a cow 

 stray into a garden and eat of the fruits 

 thereof ; is a boy bitten by a dog ; has a 

 horse kicked down a gate or nibbled a 

 shade tree ; has a man spoken or written 

 ill of a neighbor ; is the store-keeper in 

 arrears for that last lot of butter, or a cus- 

 tomer slow in paying the store-keeper for 

 the last ten pounds of it ; it is the lawyer 

 who is first to hear of it and advise a suit 

 Are the relations between two people 

 strained, he will try to strain them farther. 

 Is any simple transaction to be concluded, 

 he will surround it with perils and mys- 



