"
"'Peahs like I've nevah struck any such roads in my travellin',"
answered John Jay, carelessly, who often understood George's little
parables far better than he cared to acknowledge.
"But I know one road that you are on now, where you try to slip out of
paying what you owe every day."
John Jay hung his head, and rubbed his bare feet together in embarrassed
silence. If the Reverend George said it was so, it must be so, although
he did not know just what he was hinting at.
"Mr. Boden knows very well," continued George, "that the money that is
paid here goes to keep the road in good condition for him to travel
over. He is very glad to have such a good pike provided for him, but he
wants it for nothing. I know a poor old woman who keeps the road smooth
for somebody. She works early and late, in hot weather and cold, to earn
food and shelter and clothes for somebody; and that somebody eats her
bread, and wears out the clothes, and sleeps under her roof, and never
pays any toll. He owes her thanks and willing service,--all the help he
can give her poor, tired old body, but she never gets even the thanks.
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