"Like yourself, I suppose," said Marmaduke, smiling.
"I scorn personalities, sir," returned the Sheriff; "I say nothing of myself; but there are three men on your patent, of the kind that I should term talented by nature for her general purposes, though acting under the influence of different situations."
"We are better off, then, than I had supposed," said Marmaduke. "Who are they?"
"Why, sir, one is Hiram Doolittle; he is a carpenter by trade, as you know, and I need only point to the village to exhibit his merits. Then he is a magistrate, and might shame many a man, in his distribution of justice, who has had better opportunities than himself."
"Well, he is one," said Marmaduke, with the air of a man that was determined not to dispute the point.
"Yes, sir, and Jotham Riddel is another."
"Who!" exclaimed the Judge.
"Jotham Riddel."
"What, that dissatisfied, shiftless, lazy, speculating fellow! he who changes his county every three years, his farm every six months, and his occupation every season! an agriculturist yesterday, a shoemaker to-day, and a schoolmaster to-morrow! that epitome of all the unsteady and profitless propensities of the settlers, without one of their good qualities to counterbalance the evil! Nay, Richard, this is too bad for even—but who is the third?"
"As the third is not used to hearing such comments on his character, Judge Temple, I shall not name him," said the indignant Sheriff.
"The amount of all this, then, Dickon, is, that the trio, of which you are one, and the principal, have made some important discovery."
