"Honest? He was the honestest man I ever sot eyes on. Why, he was so honest that he was allus tryin’ to take care of his neighbors’ property. Everythin’ he could git his hands on he would take home. He was so honest that at last his neighbors allus kept their barns an’ stables locked."
"Do you mean to tell me that he was a thief?" the woman demanded. "You seem to have a very poor opinion of him."
"Yaas, almost as poor an opinion as old Judge Watkins, who sentenced him to six months in jail fer stealin’ oats from Bill Armstrong’s barn. Ye kin call that anythin’ ye like, but the Judge called it stealin’, an’ he ginerally knew what he was talkin’ about."
The woman was evidently much annoyed at this candid portrayal of the elder Dimock. She glanced toward the door as if meditating a speedy departure. Abner noted this, and it amused him.
"I wonder what in time’s keepin’ Tildy," he remarked. "She ginerally comes home like a steam engine, pantin’ an’ puffin’, when I blow the horn at this time of the day. I wish to goodness she’d come, fer I was never any good at entertainin’ company, ’specially women."
"You have certainly entertained me in a most unexpected, and, I might add, unpleasant, manner," the woman retorted. "I am not fond of having past histories raked up. It isn’t pleasant."
"I reckon it ain’t, ’specially sich a one as that of the Dimock family."
"But surely you should not blame Mr. Isaac Dimock for what his father did. He, at any rate, is above reproach, and you can’t bring any unworthy charge against him."
"That’s true," Abner assented. "It ’ud be no use bringin’ any charge aginst Ikey so long as he’s hand an’ glove with the Government. It ’ud only be workin’ fer nuthin’. Ye couldn’t ketch him, not by a jugful."
"Why, what has the Government to do with Mr. Dimock?" the woman asked in apparent surprise.
"It has a great deal to do with him, an’ almost any fool could tell ye that. The Government has made Ikey Dimock jist what he is, if ye want to know the plain truth."
"H’m," and Abner shifted significantly. "Hasn’t the Government been feedin’ him with pap fer years now? Supplyin’ him with big contracts fer hardware, an’ givin’ him great rake-offs in all sorts of government work? That’s the way Ikey Dimock made his money, an’ he’s nuthin’ more’n a chip off the old block. They called it stealin’ when his dad took the oats from Bill Armstrong’s barn, but now they call it ’high finance,’ or some sich name. But it’s stealin’ jist the same. I could tell ye a few things if I had a mind to."