"This is the way
our first parents lived--close to nature, in touch with her
gracious beneficence! Sir, this experience is singularly
refreshing after twenty years of slaving at the desk. If any man
can grasp the possibilities of a likely looking truck-patch at a
glance, I am that man, and as for getting around in the dark and
keeping the lay of the land--well, I suppose it's my military
training. Jackson always placed the highest value on such data
as I furnished him. He leaned on me more than any other man,
Solomon--"
"I've heard he stood up pretty straight," said Mahaffy affably.
The judge's abandoned conduct distressed him not a little, but
his remonstrances had been in vain.
"I consider that when society subjected me to the indignity of
arrest, I was relieved of all responsibility. Injustice must
bear its own fruit," the judge had answered him sternly.
His beginnings had been modest enough: a few ears of corn, a few
hills of potatoes, and the like, had satisfied him; then one
night he appeared in camp with two streaks of scarlet down the
side of his face.
"Are you hurt, Price?" demanded Mahaffy, betraying an anxiety of
which he was instantly ashamed.
"Let me relieve your apprehension, Solomon; it's only a trickle
of stewed fruit. I folded a couple of pies and put them in the
crown of my hat," explained the judge.
"You mean you've been in somebody's springhouse ?"
"It was unlocked, Solomon, This will be a warning to the owner.
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