dern fat a pickin our bones, seein ez ther's sech a dern leatle meat
ontew us," said Abner.

"There's as much meat on squirrels as bears if you have enough of em,"
replied Hubbard. "They pick clean, ye see, an take all we've got, an
every little helps."

"Yas," said Abner, "they do pick darned clean, but that ain't the wust
on't, fer they sends our bones tew rot in jail arter they've got all
the meat orf."

"'Twas ony yesdy Iry Seymour sole out Zadkiel Poor, ez lives long side
o' me, an tuk Zadkiel daown tew Barrington jail fer the res' what the
sale didn't fetch," said Israel Goodrich. "Zadkiel he's been kinder
ailin like fer a spell back, an his wife, she says ez haow he can't
live a month daown tew the jail, an wen Iry tuk Zadkiel orf, she tuk
on reel bad. I declare for't, it seemed kinder tough."

"I hearn ez they be tew new fellers a studyin law intew Squire
Sedgwick's office," said Obadiah Weeks, a gawky youth of perhaps
twenty, evidently anxious to buy a standing among the adult circle of
talkers by contributing an item of information.

Abner groaned. "Great Crypus! More blood-suckers. Why, they be ten
lawyers in Stockbridge taown a'ready, an they warn't but one wen I wuz
a boy, an thar wuz more settlers 'n they be naow."

"Wal, I guess they'll git nuff to dew," said Ezra Phelps. "I hearn as
haow they's seven hundred cases on the docket o' the Common Pleas,
nex' week, mos' on em fer debt."