"So, sir," I said, "you came before me and swore to a false
certificate. Do not you know you have committed perjury, which is a
very serious offence. What have you to say for yourself?"

"Wal, I guess, Mister, I han't committed no perjury. I swore I cut a
chain between two posts opposite them lots, and I can prove it by Ina
Buck, for he was with me the hul time I was doing on't."

"Now, Mr. Buck, what can you prove?"

"Wal, gentlemen, I was along with Jonathan Stubbs when he went to chop
the settlement duties, and when we got to the posts opposite the lots,
he said, 'Wal, this looks plaguy ugly any how! I calculate I must fix
these duties the short way,' so he pulled out of his pocket a short
piece of trace-chain which he laid on a stone in a line between the two
posts, and with a stroke or two of his axe severed it in two. 'Now,'
said he, 'Ina Buck, I guess you are a witness that I cut a chain
between two posts, so they can't fix me nohow?'"

"He was, however, a little out of his calculation, for we did fix him,
and sent him to jail, where I dare say he had ample time to plan some
new device for performing settlement duties."

My new friend advised me to purchase land adjoining his grant, which
was very prettily situated on the banks of the Otonabee, in the
township of the same name, within a mile of Peterborough. The price
asked was fifteen shillings per acre, which was high for wild land at
that time, but the prospect of a town so near had improved the market
considerably.