t, but not many landlords around here collect as
closely as Mr. Crawford does; they get all their money at the end of
the season and don't haggle over it month by month when the farmer has
nothing coming in. And what can you do on land that's never improved?
He lets the place run down and then turns me out because I can't make
a fortune for him on it. I--I was wondering if you couldn't do
something for me, sir."

"Do something for you?" echoed Jasper Peyton. "I can't use any
influence with Anthony Crawford, if that is what you wish."

"I don't understand it," the man persisted. "Three years ago you were
my landlord and none of us ever had dealings with Anthony Crawford
except that we used to know him when he was a boy. The whole bottom
land along the river was yours and all your tenants were farming it
for a fair rent and every one was satisfied. But then--he comes, and
the upper half is his, we hear, and it is bad luck for us, as we soon
know. Everything runs down, no one is treated fairly, and here I am,
turned off at a word, and all his doing. Couldn't you make room for me
farther down the river somewhere, sir, where the land is yours?"

He looked so red and anxious and unhappy that Janet's heart was fairly
wrung for him. His wife was ailing, she knew, the season was backward,
and here he stood, facing the loss of all his work and the necessity
of beginning all over again. She waited eagerly to hear what offer
Cousin Jasper would make.

"I--I can't help you, John," he said at last, very slowly and heavily.
"Even if I made room for you on one of the lower farms, it would only
stir up trouble, and you might wake up some day to find that Anthony
Crawford was your landlord again, after all. I can give you the money
to pay your rent, if you wish to stay where you are, but that is all
that I can do. There are times when we are none of us free agents, or
masters of our own affairs."

"I don't care to stay on, sir," John Massey returned. "I've had too
many words with Anthony Crawford for things ever to go easy again.
I've been patching up the dike with my own spare time, and maybe the
farm has suffered by my doing it; anyway he says so and calls me a
fool. I thought perhaps you would help me, since I'd been your tenant
so long before _he_ came." His voice, dragging with disappointment,
trailed lower and lower. "I don't seem to know just where to turn.
Well, good night to you, sir." He turned and walked heavily away.