They say, 'There's old Squire Peternot, seventy years old, with one foot almost in the grave,rich enough in all conscience,don't use even the interest on what money he has, but lays it up, lays it up,lives meanly as the poorest farmer in town,never gives a dollar, except when he can't help it, and then you'd think it hurt him like pulling his teeth,and yet there he is, trying to get Aunt Patsy's little house and lot away from her,making tight bargains, screwing his workmen's wages down to the lowest notch'; that's what I've heard, every word of it, and you know that every word of it is true!"
