 they dirty, or air they clean, sir?« said Scadder, holding them out.
    In a physical point of view they were decidedly dirty. But it being obvious
that Mr. Scadder offered them for examination in a figurative sense, as emblems
of his moral character, Martin hastened to pronounce them pure as the driven
snow.
    »I entreat, Mark,« he said, with some irritation, »that you will not obtrude
remarks of that nature, which, however harmless and well-intentioned, are quite
out of place, and cannot be expected to be very agreeable to strangers. I am
quite surprised.«
    »The Co.'s a putting his foot in it already,« thought Mark. »He must be a
sleeping partner: fast asleep and snoring, Co. must: I see.«
    Mr. Scadder said nothing, but he set his back against the plan, and thrust
his toothpick into the desk some twenty times: looking at Mark all the while as
if he were stabbing him in effigy.
    »You haven't said whose work it is,« Martin ventured to observe, at length,
in a tone of mild propitiation.
    »Well, never mind whose work it is, or isn't,« said the agent sulkily. »No
matter how it did eventuate. P'raps he cleared off, handsome, with a heap of
dollars; p'raps he wasn't worth a cent. P'raps he was a loafin' rowdy; p'raps a
ring-tailed roarer. Now!«
    »All your doing, Mark!« said Martin.
    »P'raps,« pursued the agent, »them an't plants of Eden's raising. No! P'raps
that desk and stool ain't made from Eden lumber. No! P'raps no end of squatters
ain't gone out there. No! P'raps there ain't no such location in the territoary
of the Great U-nited States. Oh, no!«
    »I hope you're satisfied with the success of your joke, Mark,« said Martin.
    But here, at a most opportune and happy time, the General interposed, and
called out to Scadder from the doorway to give his friends the particulars of
that little lot of fifty acres with the house upon it; which, having belonged to
the company formerly, had lately lapsed again into their hands.
    »You air a deal too open-handed, Gen'ral,« was the answer. »It is
