that for some moments. I thought he was
not so well pleased. "I do not believe that, in the circumstances,
Willis need fear being imprisoned," he said finally, "and I see no
reason for further concealment. True, several months have passed and
people have mostly forgotten it; perhaps not much good would come from
publishing the facts abroad. We'll think it over."

After a minute he said, "I'm glad you told me this," and, turning, shook
hands with me gravely.

"Ad and I don't want you to think that we expect you to square this up
for us!" I exclaimed. "We want to do something to pay the bill
ourselves, and to pay you for Lib, too."

The old Squire laughed. "Yes, I see how you feel," he said. "Would you
like me to give you and Addison a job on shares this fall or winter, so
that you could straighten this out?"

"Yes, sir, we would," said I earnestly. "And make Willis help, too!"

"Yes, yes," the old Squire said and laughed again. "I agree with you
that Willis should do his part. Nothing like square dealing, is there,
my son?" he went on. "It makes us all feel better, doesn't it?"

And he gave me a brisk little pat on the shoulder that made me feel
quite like a man.

How much better I felt after that talk with the old Squire! I felt as
blithe as a bird; and when we got home I ran and frisked and whistled
all the way to the pasture, where I went to drive home the Jersey herd.
The only qualm I felt was that I had acted without Addison's consent;
but his first words when I had told him relieved me on that score.

"I'm glad of it!" he said. "We've been in that fox bed long enough. Now
let Willis squirm." And when I told him of the old Squire's arrangement
for our paying off the debt, he said, "That suits me. But we'll make
Willis work!"

We went over to tell Willis that evening. He was, I think, even more
relieved than we were; in the weeks of anxiety that he had passed he had
determined that nothing would ever induce him to use poison again for
trapping animals.

At that time many new telegraph lines were being put up in Maine; and
the old Squire had recently accepted a contract for three thousand cedar
poles, twenty feet long, at the rate of twenty-five cents a pole. Up in
lot "No. 5," near Lurvey's Stream, there was plenty of cedar suitable
for the purpose; the poles could be floated down to the point of
delivery. The old Squire let us furnish a thousand of those poles,
putting in our own labor at cutting and hau