where
the ripple of fretted waters filled the pauses in their talk. It was
then that the judge and Mahaffy exchanged views on literature and
politics, on religion and politics, on the public debt and politics, on
canals and national roads and more politics. They could and did honestly
differ at great length and with unflagging energy on these vital topics,
especially politics, for they were as far apart mentally as they were
close together morally.

Mahaffy, morose and embittered, regarded the life they were living as
an unmixed hardship. The judge entered upon it with infinite zest. He
displayed astonishing adaptability, while he brought all the resources
of a calm and modest knowledge to bear on the vexed problem of procuring
sustenance for himself and for his two companions.

"To an old campaigner like me, nothing could be more delightful than
this holiday, coming as it does on the heels of grinding professional
activity," he observed to Mahaffy. "This is the way our first parents
lived--close to nature, in touch with her gracious beneficence! Sir,
this experience is singularly refreshing after twenty years of slaving
at the desk. If any man can grasp the possibilities of a likely looking
truck-patch at a glance, I am that man, and as for getting around in the
dark and keeping the lay of the land--well, I suppose it's my military
training. Jackson always placed the highest value on such data as I
furnished him. He leaned on me more than any other man, Solomon--"

"I've heard he stood up pretty straight," said Mahaffy affably.
The judge's abandoned conduct distressed him not a little, but his
remonstrances had been in vain.

"I consider that when society subjected me to the indignity of arrest, I
was relieved of all responsibility. Injustice must bear its own fruit,"
the judge had answered him sternly.

His beginnings had been modest enough: a few ears of corn, a few hills
of potatoes, and the like, had satisfied him; then one night he appeared
in camp with two streaks of scarlet down the side of his face.

"Are you hurt, Price?" demanded Mahaffy, betraying an anxiety of which
he was instantly ashamed.

"Let me relieve your apprehension, Solomon; it's only a trickle of
stewed fruit. I folded a couple of pies and put them in the crown of my
hat," explained the judge.

"You mean you've been in somebody's springhouse?"

"It was unlocked, Solomon, This will be a warning to the owner. I
consider I have done him