jerk.
It was the warning Maria had promised to send him if she saw prowlers
with guns. He shaded his eyes with his hand and scanned the points of
the compass through narrowed lids with concentrated vision. He first
caught a gleam of light playing on a gun-barrel, and then he could
discern the figure of a man clad in hunter's outfit leisurely walking
down the lane, toward the river.

Abram hastily hitched Nancy to the fence. By making the best time he
could, he reached the opposite corner, and was nibbling the midrib of a
young corn blade and placidly viewing the landscape when the hunter
passed.

"Howdy!" he said in an even cordial voice.

The hunter walked on without lifting his eyes or making audible reply.
To Abram's friendly oldfashioned heart this seemed the rankest
discourtesy; and there was a flash in his eye and a certain quality in
his voice he lifted a hand for parley.

"Hold a minute, my friend," he said. "Since you are on my premises,
might I be privileged to ask if you have seen a few signs 'at I have
posted pertainin' to the use of a gun?"

"I am not blind," replied the hunter; "and my education has been looked
after to the extent that I can make out your notices. From the number
and size of them, I think I could do it, old man, if I had no eyes."

The scarcely suppressed sneer, and the "old man" grated on Abram's
nerves amazingly, for a man of sixty years of peace. The gleam in his
eyes grew stronger, and there was a perceptible lift of his shoulders
as he answered:

"I meant 'em to be read an' understood! From the main road passin'
that cabin up there on the bank, straight to the river, an' from the
furthermost line o' this field to the same, is my premises, an' on
every foot of 'em the signs are in full force. They're in a little
fuller force in June, when half the bushes an' tufts o' grass are
housin' a young bird family, 'an at any other time. They're sort o'
upholdin' the legislature's act, providing for the protection o' game
an' singin' birds; an' maybe it 'ud be well for you to notice 'at I'm
not so old but I'm able to stand up for my right to any livin' man."

There certainly was an added tinge of respect in the hunter's tones as
he asked: "Would you consider it trespass if a man simply crossed your
land, following the line of the fences to reach the farm of a friend?"

"Certainly not!" cried Abram, cordial in his relief. "To be sure not!
Glad to have you convenience yoursel