True it was the price which other men had paid in the neighborhood, but they had all paid too much.

Grimshaw had established the price and called it fair.

He had taken Mr.Barnes to two or three of the settlers on the hills above Lickitysplit.
"Tell this man what you think about the kind o' land we got here," Grimshaw had demanded.
The tenant recommended it.

He had to.

They were all afraid of Grimshaw.
Mr.Barnes picked up a flat iron and felt its bottom and waved it in the air as he alleged that it was a rocky, stumpy, rooty, God-forsaken region far from church or market or school on a rough road almost impassable for a third of the year.