swear, if it
wa'n't for your wife, I wouldn't work for you an hour longer; but she's
the best woman in the world, after all you've done to break her spirit,
and I hate to leave her.'

"The old fellow squirmed, and wrenched the crowbar in the ground, then
snarled back: 'Yes! you're waitin' for me to die; then you mean to step
into my shoes.'

"'I hope you'll have a decenter pair than them you've got on, if I'm to
step into 'em,' says I.

"'One thing about it,' says he, 'she won't have ye.'

"'I should think,' says I, 'a woman that would marry you would have
'most anybody.'

"So we had it back and forth, till by and by he left me to throw off the
rails, and went to show the boys how to build the fence.

"'Look here,' says he; 'jest put a thunderin' big stun to each corner;
then lay your rail on; then drive your pair of stakes over it like a
letter X.' He drove a pair. 'Now put on your rider. There's your letter
X, ridin' one length of rails and carryin' another. That's what I call
puttin' yer alphabet to a practical use; and I say there a'n't no sense
in havin' any more education than ye _can_ put to a practical use. I've
larnin' enough to git along in the world; and if my boys have as much
as I've got, they'll git along. Now work spry, for there comes Deacon
Talcott.'

"'Wal, wall' says the Deacon, coming up, puffing with excitement; 'what
ye doin' to the old meetin'-house?'

"'Wal,' says Jedwort, driving away at his stakes, and never looking
up, 'I've been considerin' some time what I should do with't, and I've
concluded to make a barn on't.'

"'Make a barn! make a barn!' cries the Deacon. 'Who give ye liberty to
make a barn of the house of God?'

"'Nobody; I take the liberty. Why shouldn't I do what I please with my
own prop'ty?'

"'Your own property--what do you mean? 'Ta'n't your meetin'-house.'

"'Whose is't, if 'ta'n't mine?' says Jedwort, lifting his turtle's head
from between his horizontal shoulders, and grinning in the Deacon's
face.

"'It belongs to the society,' says the Deacon.'

"'But the s'ciety's pulled up stakes and gone off.'

"'It belongs to individooals of the society--to individooals.'

"'Wal, I'm an individooal,' says Jedwort.

"'You! you never went to meetin' here a dozen times in your life!'

"'I never did have my share of the old meet-in'-house, that's a fact,'
says Jedwort; 'but I'll make it up now.'

"'But what are ye fencin' up the common for?' says the Deacon.

"'It