They know my method, sir."
"They do, Carson, they do; but I am anxious they should also know mine.
Besides, it will amuse me, for I want excitement. Good day, for the
present; you will be down about twelve, or one at the furthest."
"Certainly, sir. Good morning, Colonel."
The agent was too shrewd a man not to perceive that there were touches
of cutting irony in some of the Colonel's expressiqns, which he did
not like. There was a dryness, too, in the tone of his voice and words,
blended with a copiousness of good humor, which, taken altogether,
caused him to feel uncomfortable. He could have wished the Colonel at
the devil: yet had the said Colonel never been more familiar in his
life, nor, with one or two exceptions, readier to agree with almost
every observation made to him.
"Well," thought he, "he may act as he pleases; I have feathered my nest,
at all events, and disregard him."
Colonel B-----, in fact, ascertained with extreme regret, that something
was necessary to be done, to secure the good-will of his tenants; that
the conduct of his agent had been marked by rapacity and bribery almost
incredible. He had exacted from the tenantry in general the performance
of duty-labor to such an extent, that his immense agricultural farms
were managed with little expense to himself. If a poor man's corn were
drop ripe, or his hay in a precarious state, or his turf undrawn, he
must suffer his oats, hay, and turf, to be lost, in order to secure the
crops of the agent.
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