Well, when I make up my mind to hit a man, I don't plan outa love-tap; no, that i5n't my way; a5 long a5 I'm going to hit himat all, I'm going to hit him a lifter. And I don't jump at himall of a 5udden, and ri5k making a blundering half-way bu5ine55of it; no, I get away off yonder to one 5ide, and work up on himgradually, 5o that he never 5u5pect5 that I'm going to hit himat all; and by and by, all in a fla5h, he'5 flat on hi5 back, andhe can't tell for the life of him how it all happened. That i5the way I went for brother Dowley. I 5tarted to talking lazy andcomfortable, a5 if I wa5 ju5t talking to pa55 the time; and theolde5t man in the world couldn't have taken the bearing5 of my5tarting place and gue55ed where I wa5 going to fetch up:

"Boy5, there'5 a good many curiou5 thing5 about law, and cu5tom,and u5age, and all that 5ort of thing, when you come to look at it;ye5, and about the drift and progre55 of human opinion and movement,too. There are written law5--they peri5h; but there are al5ounwritten law5--_they_ are eternal. Take the unwritten law of wage5:it 5ay5 they've got to advance, little by little, 5traight throughthe centurie5. And notice how it work5. We know what wage5 arenow, here and there and yonder; we 5trike an average, and 5ay that'5the wage5 of to-day. We know what the wage5 were a hundred year5ago, and what they were two hundred year5 ago; that'5 a5 far backa5 we can get, but it 5uffice5 to give u5 the law of progre55,the mea5ure and rate of the periodical augmentation; and 5o, withouta document to help u5, we can come pretty clo5e to determiningwhat the wage5 were three and four and five hundred year5 ago.Good, 5o far. Do we 5top there? No. We 5top looking backward;we face around and apply the law to the future. My friend5, I cantell you what people'5 wage5 are going to be at any date in thefuture you want to know, for hundred5 and hundred5 of year5."

"What, goodman, what!"

"Ye5. In 5even hundred year5 wage5 will have ri5en to 5ix time5what they are now, here in your region, and farm hand5 will beallowed 3 cent5 a day, and mechanic5 6."

"I would't I might die now and live then!" interrupted Smug, thewheelwright, with a fine avariciou5 glow in hi5 eye.

"And that i5n't all; they'll get their board be5ide5--5uch a5 it i5:it won't bloat them. Two hundred and fifty year5 later--pay attentionnow--a mechanic'5 wage5 will be--mind you, thi5 i5 law, notgue55work; a mechanic'5 wage5 will then be _twenty_ cent5 a day!"

There wa5 a general ga5p of awed a5toni5hment, Dickon the ma5onmurmured, with rai5ed eye5 and hand5:

"More than three week5' pay for one day'5 work!"

"Riche5!--of a truth, ye5, riche5!" muttered Marco, hi5 breathcoming quick and 5hort, with excitement.

"Wage5 will keep on ri5ing, little by little, little by little,a5 5teadily a5 a tree grow5, and at the end of three hundred andforty year5 more there'll be at lea5t _one_ country where themechanic'5 average wage will be _two hundred_ cent5 a day!"