PROCTOR: My lumber. From out my forest by the riverside.
PUTNAM: Why, we are surely gone wild this year. What anarchy is this? That tract is in my bounds, it’s in my bounds, Mr. Proctor.
PROCTOR: In your bounds! I bought that tract from Goody Nurse’s husband five months ago.
PUTNAM: He had no right to sell it. It stands clear in my grandfather’s will that all the land between the river and – .
PROCTOR: Your grandfather had a habit of willing land that never belonged to him, if I may say it plain.
GILES: That’s God’s truth; he nearly willed away my north pasture but he knew I’d break his fingers before he’d set his name to it.
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 1. Here we get an insight into a land dispute between John Proctor and Thomas Putnam. It concerns ownership of a piece of land where Proctor harvests lumber. Proctor says that he bought the land from Francis Nurse, while Putname claims his grandfather willed it to him. But Proctor and Giles Corey say that Putnam’s grandfather had a practice of willing land not belonging to him. We see the theme of greed reflected in this exchange.