"Just so;--and I admire a man
that will stand up for his own rights. I am told that you have
found his Lordship's pheasants destructive to your corn."
"Didn't leave him hardly a grain last August," said Mrs. Goarly.
"Will you hold your jaw, woman, or will you not?" said the man
turning round fiercely at her. "I'm going to have the law of his
Lordship, sir. What's seven and six an acre? There's that quantity
of pheasants in that wood as'd eat up any mortal thing as ever was
grooved. Seven and six!"
"Didn't you propose arbitration?"
"I never didn't propose nothin'. I've axed two pound, and my lawyer
says as how I'll get it. What I sold come off that other bit of
ground down there. Wonderful crop! And this 'd've been the same.
His Lordship ain't nothin' to me, Mr. Gotobed."
"You don't approve of hunting, Mr. Goarly."
"Oh, I approves if they'd pay a poor man for what harm they does
him. Look at that there goose." Mr. Gotobed did look at the goose.
"There's nine and twenty they've tuk from me, and only left un
that." Now Mrs. Goarly's goose was well known in those parts. It
was declared that she was more than a match for any fox in the
county, but that Mrs. Goarly for the last two years had never owned
any goose but this one.
"The foxes have eaten there all?" asked the Senator.
"Every mortal one.
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