"I should say you had said enough; for there seems to be no foundation for any of your complaints. I think the colonel meant to be fair and just, and make an equal distribution of his property between you and me. Taking out fifteen thousand dollars he gave to charity and his friends"-- "That was giving away what belonged to you and me," interposed the objector. "You are as unreasonable as a pig in a cornfield, Brother Titus!" exclaimed Noah, whose abundant patience was on the verge of exhaustion. "Duncan was giving away his own property, and not yours or mine, as you appear to think he was, especially yours; for I believe he did just right. Taking out the fifteen thousand and the ten he paid for the support of the orphans,--which I suppose you mean to have settled up in another way,--there was seventy-five thousand dollars left, which he divided equally among his brothers and the representatives of the one who died over ten years ago. That is according to the valuation annexed to the will." "It's mighty strange, Noah, that you can't see nothin' when it's p'inted out to you," stormed Titus, his wrath rising to the boiling point at his repeated defeats; for, "though vanquished, he could argue still." "I don't believe at all in your pointing, Brother Titus." "You talk about that valuation; but it was a fraud, and it was meant to cheat me out of eight or ten thousand dollars!" roared the malcontent, gesticulating violently. "It ought to been thirty thousand dollars more'n 'twas! I say it out loud; and I know what I'm talkin' about!" "I don't think you do, Brother Titus. I think you had better stop drinking whiskey for a week, and then we can talk this subject over more satisfactorily." "Do you mean to accuse me of bein' drunk, Noah Lyon?" demanded Titus, shaking his fist in the face of his brother; and at this moment that colt was dashing over the bridge at a dead run, with Levi on his back. "I don't think you are drunk, Brother Titus, as tipplers understand the word, but you are under the influence of liquor, and it affects your judgment," replied Noah as gently as though he had been speaking in a prayer-meeting. "Then you mean that I _am_ drunk!" [Illustration: "THEN YOU MEAN I AM DRUNK."] Both of his fists were clinched, and he was shaking one in the face of the planter, when the bay colt dashed in between them, Noah falling back before the menacing demonstration of Titus. Levi had dismounted at the end of the bridge, and seated himself in the arbor where he could still see the two men. When Titus shook his fist in the face of the planter, he leaped upon the colt as though he had been fifty pounds lighter, and galloped to the scene of the wordy contest. "What do you want here?" demanded the visitor, with a very unnecessary expletive. "What is it, Levi?" asked Noah.