The air, the water, and the
ground, are free gifts to man, and no one has the power to portion
them out in parcels. Man must drink, and breathe, and walk,--and
therefore each has a right to his share of 'arth. Why do not the
surveyors of the States set their compasses and run their lines over
our heads as well as beneath our feet? Why do they not cover their
shining sheep-skins with big words, giving to the landholder, or
perhaps he should be called air holder, so many rods of heaven, with
the use of such a star for a boundary-mark, and such a cloud to turn a
mill?"
As the squatter uttered his wild conceit, he laughed from the very
bottom of his chest, in scorn. The deriding but frightful merriment
passed from the mouth of one of his ponderous sons to that of the
other, until it had made the circuit of the whole family.
"Come, trapper," continued Ishmael, in a tone of better humour, like a
man who feels that he has triumphed, "neither of us, I reckon, has
ever had much to do with title-deeds, or county clerks, or blazed
trees; therefore we will not waste words on fooleries.
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