To such a state had the farm been brought in a brief time.
And how would the landlord come off?
The new tenant would certainly make his bargain in accordance with the state of the land.

For the first year the rent paid would be nominal; for the second, perhaps a third or half the usual sum; not till the third year could the landlord hope to get his full rental.

That full rental, too, would be lower than previously, because the general depression had sent down arable rents everywhere, and no one would pay on the old scale.
Smith thought very hard things of the landlord, and felt that he should have his revenge.

On the other hand, the landlord thought very hard things of Smith, and not without reason.

That an old tenant, the descendant of one of the oldest tenant-farmer families, should exhaust the soil in this way seemed the blackest return for the good feeling that had existed for several generations.