“‘Taint nothin’ on earth but those foreign whims he’s brought back an’ is tryin’ to set workin’ down here,” said Solomon Hatch.  “If we don’t get our backs up agin ’em in time, we’ll find presently we don’t even dare to walk straight along the turnpike when we see him a comin’.  A few birds, indeed!—­did anybody ever hear tell of sech doin’s?  ’Warn’t them birds in the air?’ I ax, ‘an’ don’t the air belong to Archie the same as to him?’”

“It’s because he’s rich an’ we’re po’, that he’s got a right to lay claim to it,” muttered William Ming, a weakly obstinate person, to whose character a glass of cider contributed the only strength.

“You’d better hold yo’ tongue, suh,” retorted his wife, “it ain’t yo’ air anyway, is it?”

“I reckon it’s as much mine as it’s Mr. Jonathan’s,” rejoined William, who, having taken a double portion, had waxed argumentative.  “An’ what I reason is that birds as is in the air ain’t anybody’s except the man’s that can bring ’em down with a gun.”

“That’s mo’ than you could do,” replied his wife, “an’ be that whether or no, it’s time you were thinkin’ about beddin’ the grey mule, an’ she ain’t in the air, anyhow.  If I was you, Abel,” she continued in a softer tone, “I wouldn’t let ’em make me so riled about Mr. Jonathan till I’d looked deep in the matter.  It may be that he ain’t acquainted with the custom of the neighbourhood, an’ was actin’ arter some foolish foreign laws he was used to.”

“I’ll give him warning all the same,” said Abel savagely, “that if I ever catch him on my land I’ll serve him in the fashion that he served Archie.”

“You don’t lose nothin’ by goin’ slow,” returned Solomon.  “Old Adam there is a born fire eater, too, but he knows how to set back when thar’s trouble brewin’.”

“I ain’t never set back mo’ than was respectable in a man of ninety,” croaked old Adam indignantly, while he prodded the ashes in his corncob pipe with his stubby forefinger. “’Tis my j’ints, not my sperits that have grown feeble.”

“Oh, we all know that your were a gay dog an’ a warnin’ to the righteous when you were young,” rejoined Solomon, in an apologetic manner, “an’ it must be a deal of satisfaction to be able to look back on a sinful past when you’ve grown old and repented.  I’ve been a pious, God-fearing soul from my birth, as you all know, friends, but sad to relate, I ain’t found the solid comfort in a life of virtue that I’d hoped for, an’ that’s the truth.”

“The trouble with it, Solomon,” replied old Adam, pushing a log back on the andirons with his rough, thick soled boot to which shreds of manure were clinging, “the trouble with it is that good or bad porridge, it all leaves the same taste in the mouth arter you’ve once swallowed it.  I’ve had my pleasant trespasses in the past, but when I look backward on ’em now, to save my life, I can’t remember anything about ’em but some small painful mishap that al’ays went along