I will see if I can
find a place the Americans do not want!"
It did not take many words to tell the story. Alessandro had not
been ploughing more than an hour, when, hearing a strange sound,
he looked up and saw a man unloading lumber a few rods off'.
Alessandro stopped midway in the furrow and watched him. The
man also watched Alessandro. Presently he came toward him, and
said roughly, "Look here! Be off, will you? This is my land. I'm
going to build a house here."
Alessandro had replied, "This was my land yesterday. How comes
it yours to-day?"
Something in the wording of this answer, or something in
Alessandro's tone and bearing, smote the man's conscience, or
heart, or what stood to him in the place of conscience and heart,
and he said: "Come, now, my good fellow, you look like a
reasonable kind of a fellow; you just clear out, will you, and not
make me any trouble. You see the land's mine. I've got all this land
round here;" and he waved his arm, describing a circle; "three
hundred and twenty acres, me and my brother together, and we're
coming in here to settle.
Pages:
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552