The Duke of Stockbridge | Page 8

nuthin," and Ezra illustrated the process by
raising the mug as high as his head and bringing it slowly down to his
knees. "Paounds an shillins runs daown tew by gittin wored off till
they's light weight. Every kine o' money runs daown, on'y it's the nater
o' bills to run daown a leetle quicker nor other sorts. Naow I says, an I
ain't the ony one ez says it, that all guvment's got to dew is tew keep a
printin new bills ez fass ez the old ones gits run daown. Times wuz
good long in the war. A feller could git baout what he assed fer his
crops an he could git any wages he assed. Yer see guvment wuz a
printin money fass. Jess's quick ez a bill run daown they up and printed
another one, so they wuz allers plenty. Soon ez the war wuz over they
stopped a printin bills and immejetly the hard times come. Hain't that

so?"
"I dunno but yew be right," said Abner, thoughtfully, "I never thort on't
ezzackly that way," and Isaiah Goodrich also expressed the opinion that
there was "somethin into what Ezry says."
"What we wants," pursued Ezra, "what we wants, is a kine o' bills
printed as shall lose vally by reglar rule, jess so much a month, no more
no less, cordin ez its fixed by law an printed on tew the bills so'z
everybody'll understan an no-body'll git cheated. I hearn that's the idee
as the Hampshire folks went fer in the convenshun daown tew Hatfield
this week. Ye see, ez I wuz a sayin, bills is baoun tew come daown
anyhow ony if they comes daown regler, cordin tew law, everybody'll
know what t'expect, and nobody won' lose nothin."
"Praps the convenshun what's a sittin up tew Lenox'll rekummen them
bills," hopefully suggested a farmer who had been taking in Ezra's
wisdom with open mouth.
"I don' s'pose that it'll make any odds how many bills are printed as
far's we're concerned," said Hubbard, bitterly. "The lawyers'll make out
to git em all pretty soon. Ye might's well try to fat a hog with a tape
worm in him, as to make folks rich as long as there are any lawyers
round."
"Yas, an jestices' fees, an sheriff fees is baout ez bad ez lawyer's," said
Israel Goodrich, whose countenance was beginning to glow from the
influence of his potations. "I tell you wesh'd be a dern sight better off
'f'all the courts wuz stopped. Most on ye is young fellers, 'cept you
Elnathan Hamlin, thar. He'll tell ye, ez I tell ye, that this air caounty
never seen sech good times, spite on'ts bein war times, ez long fur '74
to '80, arter we'd stopped the King's courts from sittin an afore we'd
voted for the new constitution o' the state, ez we wuz durn fools fer
doin of, ef I dew say it. In them six year thar warn't nary court sot
nowhere in the caounty, from Boston Corner tew ole Fort
Massachusetts, an o' course thar warn't no lawyers an no sheriffs ner no
depity sheriffs nuther, tew make every debt twice as big with ther
darnation fees. They warn't no sheriffs sales, nuther, a sellin of a feller

outer house'n hum an winter comin on, an thar warn't no suein an no
jailin of fellers fer debt. Folks wuz keerful who they trusted, ez they'd
orter be allers, for ther warn't no klectin o' debts nohow, an ef that
warn't allers jestice I reckin 'twas as nigh jestice as 'tis to klect bills
swelled more'n double by lawyers' and sheriffs' and jestices' fees ez
they doos naow. In them days ef any feller wuz put upon by another
he'd jess got tew complain tew the slectmen or the committee, an they'd
right him. I tell yew rich folks an poor folks lived together kinder
neighborly in them times an 'cordin tew scripter. The rich folks warn't a
grindin the face o' the poor, an the poor they wuzn't a hatin an a envyin
o' the rich, nigh untew blood, ez they is naow, ef I dew say it. Yew
rekullec them days, Elnathan, warn't it jess ez I say?"
"Them wuz good times, Israel. Ye ain't sayin nothin more'n wuz trew,"
said Elnathan in a feeble treble, from his seat on the settle.
"I tell you they wuz good," reiterated Israel, as he looked around upon
the group with scintillating eyes, and proceeded to hand his mug over
the bar to be refilled.
"I hearn ez haow the convenshun up tew Lenox is a go in tew 'bolish
the lawyers an the courts," said a stalwart fellow of bovine countenance,
named Laban Jones, one of the discharged iron-works men.
"The convenshun can't