Obadiah say what he would.⸻
In point of interest⸺the contest, I own, at first sight, did not appear so undecisive betwixt them; for whenever my father took pen and ink in hand, and set about calculating the simple expense of paring and burning, and fencing in the Ox-moor etc. etc. —with the certain profit it would bring him in return⸺the latter turned out so prodigiously in his way of working the account, that you would have sworn the Ox-moor would have carried all before it. For it was plain he should reap a hundred lasts of rape, at twenty pounds a last, the very first year⸺besides an excellent crop of wheat the year following⸺and the year after that, to speak within bounds, a hundred⸺but in all likelihood, a hundred and fifty⸻if not two hundred quarters of peas and beans⸺besides potatoes without end.⸺But then, to think he was all this while breeding up my brother, like a hog to eat them⸺knocked all on the head again, and generally left the old gentleman in such a state of suspence⸺that, as he often declared to my uncle Toby ⸺he knew no more than his heels what to do.