16 THE POOR WOODCUTTER.

 

“ Seventy-five cents.”
* “What!”

“Three quarters is the price of sawing
hickory.”

‘“‘T'm sure I never paid over half-a-dollar,
or sixty-two cents, at most.”

“You may have got pine or oak sawed
for that, but not hickory,” said the sawyer.

“Ts three quarters the regular price ?”

inquired Mr. Edgar of the carter.
“Yes, sir,” answered the man of the
_ whip, “they always get that. And I’m
sure, sir, that if you were to run a saw
through a cord of hard, seasoned hickory,
you wouldn't think yourself too well paid
even at seventy-five cents.”

This was a form of argument that car-
ried with it a convincing force. Mr. Ed-
gar disputed the charge no further. While
he yet stood musing over the great price
his half-cord was going to cost him, the
man who had asked if he did not wish it
split, and who had followed him along the