I have n't the first at my age , and my hired man has n't the last . And nobody would do it for what I could afford to pay . '' `` What will you give me if I undertake to clean the elders out of this field for you , Mr. Fillmore ? '' asked Ellis quietly . Old Thomas looked at him with a surprised face , which gradually reverted to its original shrewdness when he saw that Ellis was in earnest . `` You must be hard up for a job , '' he said . `` I am , '' was Ellis 's laconic answer . `` Well , lem me see . '' Old Thomas calculated carefully . He never paid a cent more for anything than he could help , and was noted for hard bargaining . `` I 'll give ye sixteen dollars if you clean out the whole field , '' he said at length . Ellis looked at the pasture . He knew something about cleaning out elderberry brush , and he also knew that sixteen dollars would be very poor pay for it . Most of the elders were higher than a man 's head , with big roots , thicker than his wrist , running deep into the ground . `` It 's worth more , Mr. Fillmore , '' he said . `` Not to me , '' responded Old Thomas drily . `` I 've plenty more land and I 'm an old fellow without any sons . I ai n't going to pay out money for the benefit of some stranger who 'll come after me . You can take it or leave it at sixteen dollars . '' Ellis shrugged his shoulders .
He had no prospect XXXXX anything else , and sixteen dollars were better than nothing .
about after at for if in of to with without