eat. In sullen silence Bancroft remounted, and side by side they rode
slowly towards the farm. The schoolmaster's feelings may easily be
imagined. He had been disgusted by the cunning and hypocrisy of the
trick, and the complacent expression of the Elder's countenance
irritated him intensely. As he passed place after place where the cattle
had given him most trouble in the morning, anger took possession of him,
and at length forced itself to speech.

"See here, Elder Conklin!" he began abruptly, "I suppose you call
yourself a Christian. You look down on me because I'm not a Member. Yet,
first of all, you salt cattle for days till they're half mad with
thirst, then after torturing them by driving them for hours along this
road side by side with water, you act lies with the man you've sold them
to, and end up by cheating him. You know as well as I do that each of
those steers had drunk sixty-five pounds' weight of water at least; so
you got" (he couldn't use the word "stole" even in his anger, while the
Elder was looking at him) "more than a dollar a head too much. That's
the kind of Christianity you practise. I don't like such Christians, and
I'll leave your house as soon as I can. I am ashamed that I didn't tell
the dealer you were deceiving him. I feel as if I had been a party to
the cheat."

While the young man was speaking the Elder looked at him intently. At
certain parts of the accusation Conklin's face became rigid, but he said
nothing. A few minutes later, having skirted the orchard, they
dismounted at the stable-door.

After he had unsaddled his horse and thrown it some Indian corn,
Bancroft hastened to the house; he wanted to be alone. On the stoop he
met Loo and said to her hastily: