"My teeth are all sound," said Bates.

"Thank the Lord for that!" the young man answered with an emphatic piety
which, for all that appeared, might have been perfectly sincere.

"And the young lady?" he asked after a minute.

"What?"

"The young lady's teeth--the teeth of the intelligent young lady--the
intelligent teeth of the young lady--are they sound?"

"Yes."

He sighed deeply. "And to think," he mourned, "that he should have
casually lost her _just_ this morning!"

He spoke exactly as if the girl were a penknife or a marble that had
rolled from Bates's pocket, and the latter, irritated by an inward fear,
grew to hate the jester.

When the meal, which consisted of fried eggs, pancakes, and potatoes,
was eaten, the surveyors spent an hour or two about the clearing,
examining the nature of the soil and rock. They had something to say to
Bates concerning the value of his land which interested him exceedingly.
Considering how rare it was for him to see any one, and how fitted he
was to appreciate intercourse with men who were manifestly in a higher
rank of life than he, it would not have been surprising if he had