Another incident occurred about this time which also illustrates, in some degree, the spirit of the times. Two citizens who shall be named B. and M. had been in the habit of bantering each other about their poverty. M. persisted in assuming that he was not as poor as B., and that it was all owing to his superior address and financial ability. This ridiculous assumption may be understood, when it is stated that neither party could, from every available resource, have raised a sum in money equal to the present price of a barrel of flour. M. complained to B. about his hogs running at large, and threatened that if they were permitted to annoy him he would shut them up and kill them. It so happened that B. did not own a hog in the world--a fact which he was careful not to disclose. M. commenced to put his threat in execution by building an enclosure in which he incarcerated all vagrant hogs, and proceeded to put them in a condition for slaughtering by a liberal appliance of corn and swill. These things did not escape the observation of B. who waited patiently until the hogs were in a nice condition, when he called upon M. and rather angrily remonstrated with him upon committing so unneighborly an act as to secrete his hogs, alleging that he had searched diligently for them, and that great apprehensions had existed, lest his family might seriously suffer for the want thereof. He reminded him of the cordiality and good feeling which had previously existed between them, of their good natured jokes and banters, and of the general felicity which they had enjoyed in each other's society; and read him a homily upon the advantages to be derived from the practice of honesty and integrity. He insisted, however, upon the unconditional liberation of four particularly promising specimens of the genus, porker. To this M. demurred.--While he admitted that what B. had taken so much pains to remind him of, was in the main true, he urged that the corn wherewith he had fed the hogs was difficult to be obtained, that he had spent much time in feeding and taking care of them, and that it was not right for one man to take advantage of another's wrong act for his own benefit. These arguments somewhat mollified B. who finally agreed to a compromise by which M. was to continue feeding the hogs for a specified time, and then kill and dress them, and bring the carcasses of the two best to the house of B. This compact was carried into effect in good faith. Shortly afterwards B. disclosed the history of this little operation which came to the ears of M. It is confidently believed that he never afterwards boasted of his peculiar gifts of finesse. It is but fair to say, that the real owner of the hogs who had no share in the spoils, pocketed his loss with admirable grace.