How mean and small and low and churlish! The damage we did your
land, as you call it--if we did any at all--was certainly not a
ha'pennyworth. Was it consonant with your dignity as a chief in the
tribe to get so hot and angry about so small a value? How grotesque
to make so much fuss and noise about a matter of a ha'penny! We,
who were the aggrieved parties, we, whom you attempted to debar by
main force from the common human right to walk freely over earth
wherever there's nothing sown or planted, and who were obliged to
remove you as an obstacle out of our path, at some personal
inconvenience"--(he glanced askance at his clothes, crumpled and
soiled by Sir Lionel's unseemly resistance)--"WE didn't lose our
tempers, or attempt to revile you. We were cool and collected. But
a taboo must be on its very last legs when it requires the aid of
terrifying notices at every corner in order to preserve it; and I
think this of yours must be well on the way to abolition. Still, as
I should like to part friends"--he drew a coin from his pocket, and
held it out between his finger and thumb with a courteous bow
towards Sir Lionel--"I gladly tender you a ha'penny in compensation
for any supposed harm we may possibly have done your imaginary
rights by walking through the wood here."






V