I am."

"And that he asked for proposals?"

"Yes."

"I tried to get the contract."

"You!" There was more surprise in this ejaculation than the friend had
meant to convey.

"Certainly! Why not?" was petulantly remarked.

"Of course you had a perfect right to do so?"

"Of course I had; and of course my bid, though the lowest, was thrown
out, and the bid of Jackson, who manages to monopolize every thing in
the village, taken. He and Clinton are leagued together, and the offer
for proposals was only a sham."

"That's assuming a good deal, friend Maxwell."

"No, it isn't. It's the truth, and nothing else but the truth. He's the
jackal, and Clinton's the lion."

"You speak without reflection," said the friend, mildly.

"I'm not blind. I see how things are worked."

"You say your bid was lower than Jackson's? How do you know this? I
thought his bid was not publicly known."

"I knew it; and, in fact, knew what it was to be before I sent in my
proposals, and was, therefore, able to go below it. The truth is, I
managed, between you and I, to find out just what every man was going to
bid, and then struck a mark below them all, to make sure of the job. I
wanted a chance, and was determined to have it at all hazards."

"I hardly think your mode of procedure was fair," said the friend; "but
waiving that, could you have made any thing by the job, at your
bidding?"

"Oh, yes, I'd have made something--more, a good deal, than I can make by
day's work. The fact is, I set my heart on that job as a stepping stone
to contract work; and am bitterly disappointed at its loss. Much good
may it do both Jackson and Clinton. I shouldn't be much sorry to see the
new dam swept away by the next freshet."

"Why, Maxwell! This is not the spirit of a Christian man. Envy,
malice--these are what the Bible condemns in the plainest terms; and for
these sins, the poor have quite as much to answer for as the rich--and
perhaps more. If you go from church on the Sabbath with no better
thoughts than these, I fear you are quite as far from the Kingdom of
Heaven as you have supposed Mr. Clinton to be."

"Good day," said Maxwell, turning off abruptly from his friend, and
taking a path that led by a nearer course than the one in which they
were walking, to his home.

A few weeks later, the person with whom Maxwell thus conversed, had
occasion to transact some business with Mr. Clinton. He had rendered him
a bill for work done, and called to r