A lean, yellow horse,
tackled to the shafts of a broken top-buggy with bits of rope as
well as worn straps, stood in the roadway. The man on the seat,
talking to another on the ground, was Mr. Gedney Raffer, the
timberman who was contending at law with Uncle Henry.
It was he who had said: "I'd give money, I tell ye, to see Hen
Sherwood git his."
There had fallen a silence, but just as Nan recognized the mean
looking old man on the carriage seat, she heard the second man
speak from the other side of the buggy.
"I tell you like I done Hen himself, Ged; I don't wanter be mixed
up in no land squabble. I ain't for neither side."
It was Toby. Nan knew his voice, and she remembered how he had
answered Uncle Henry at the lumber camp, the first day she had
seen the old lumberman. Nan could not doubt that the two men
were discussing the argument over the boundary of the Perkins
Tract.
Gedney Raffer snarled out an imprecation when old Toby had
replied as above. "Ef you know which side of your bread the
butter's on, you'll side with me," he said.
"We don't often have butter on our bread, an' I ain't goin' ter
side with nobody," grumbled Toby Vanderwiller.
"S-s!" hissed Raffer. "Come here!"
Toby stepped closer to the rattletrap carriage.
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