hey should take the
cart; and they did so.

Tom had joined the boys as their clumsy vehicle creaked along a muddy
street, a little more serious than usual, because of some news he had
heard, he said, but boastful as ever.

"I was talkin' to a big seven-footer in the tavern last night," he
said--"A feller that had a grudge ag'in' me once. He never liked me till
I threw him over a house one day;--threw him clean over a house. It makes
me larff!"

John laughed, too, at this, but he said: "Tom Fish, you weigh a good
three stone (forty-two) more than I do, but I believe I could throw you
in a wrestle. When we stop for dinner, I am going to put you on your
back!"

A laugh long and loud came from the woodsman's throat. "Why, what a
playful kitten ye be!" he exclaimed. "Why, I could toss ye up in the air
and ketch ye nigh a dozen times whilst ye were only thinkin' of throwin'
me."

"I'd like to see you try it," cried John.

"Put aside your nonsense, you two, until noon, now do," Ree laughingly
urged, "and tell us, Tom, of that Colonel Boquet whose road we are to
follow."

"Waal, that's quite a yarn," said Tom Fish. "But le' me see now; le' me
see. It was back when I was jes a young buck, 'long 'bout '64, that this
Colonel Boquet, who was a mighty decent citizen for a Frenchman, made up
his mind to get a whack at the pesky Injuns which had been killin' an'
scalpin' an' burnin' an' robbin' all along the border of Pennsylvania an'
Virginia an' Lord knows where all.

"Waal, the state of Pennsylvania an' the state of Virginia helped him
with sojers an' he mustered scouts enough so that in all he had nigh onto
2,000 men. He marched 'em straight into the woods, the whole caboodle on
'em, clearin' a road as he went, an' takin' along a lot o' sheep an'
cows, and provender for the sojers without end. He went straight along
till he come to the Muskingum river, an' there he camped out, makin' a
show with all his men an' pack-horses an' everything, that scared the
Mingoes an' the Delawares half to death for fear he'd stay right there
an' build a town amongst 'em.

"They was willin' to do most anything to get rid of him, an' there was
only one thing that he would hear to. He give 'em jes' ten days to trot
into his camp every prisoner they had in all their towns far an' near,
an' told 'em that if ary a one was held back, he'd march on every pesky
village an' knock 'em sky high an' burn 'em down.

"Waal! them Injuns was so scared