"Well?" said he. He had resumed his pipe, and put his "well" in the form of an interrogation.
"Why," she went on, "what would become of the farmers?"
He puffed away. "I reckon, they'd have either to give up their farms, or to give fair rate of wage."
"Suppose they could not, or would not do the last; they could not give up their farms all in a minute, however much they might wish to do so; but they would have no hay, nor corn to sell that year; and where would the money come from to pay the labourers' wages the next?"
Still puffing away. At last he said:

So what would become of the farmers?'
He puffed at his pipe. 'They'd have either to give up their farms, or to give fair rate of wage.'
'Suppose they could not do the latter; they could not give up their farms all in a minute, but they would have no corn to sell that year; and where would the money come from to pay the labourers' wages the next?'
Still puffing away, he said:
