A few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is a deep inlet winding several miles int o the interior of the country from Charles Bay
"Let that skull alone!
What are you doing on my grounds?"
Your grounds!" said Tom, with a sneer; "no more yourgrounds than mine; they belong to Deacon Peabody."
"Deacon Peabody be damned," said the stranger, "as I flatter myself he will be, if he does not look more to his own sins and less to those of his neighbors. Look yonder,and see how Deacon Peabody is faring."
Tom looked in the direction that the stranger pointed, and beheld one of the great trees, fair and flourishing without,but rotten at the core, and saw that it had been nearly hewn through, so that the first high wind was likely to blow it down
"He's just ready for burning!"
"But what right have you," said Tom, "to cut down DeaconPeabody's timber?"
"The right of a prior claim," said the other. "This wood land belonged to me long before one of your white-faced race put foot upon the soil.
"And, pray, who are you, if I may be so bold?" said Tom.