Nobody's Man by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
page 163 of 324 (50%)
page 163 of 324 (50%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
brothers two hundred each?"
"Quite true," Jane replied coldly. "What of it?" "What of it?" the man repeated. "You lend them youngsters money and then you come to me, a man who's been on this land for twenty-two years, and you've nothing to say but 'get out!' Where am I to find another farm at my time of life? Just answer me that, will you?" "It is not my concern," Jane declared. "I only know that I decline to have any tenants on my property who do not do justice to the land. When I see that they do justice to it, then it is my wish that they should possess it. It is true that I have lent money to some of the farmers round here, but the greater part of what they have put down for the purchase of their holdings is savings,--money they had saved and earned by working early and late, by careful farming and husbandry, by putting money in the bank every quarter. You've had the same opportunity. You have preferred to waste your time and waste your money. You've had more than one warning you know, Crockford." "Aye, more than a dozen," Segerson muttered. The man looked at them both and there was a dull hate gathering in his eyes. "It's easy to talk about saving money and working hard, you that have got everything you want in life and no work to do," he protested "It's enough to make a man turn Socialist to listen to un." "Mr. Crockford," Jane said, "I am a Socialist and if you take the |
|