will only laugh at
you. The less you have to say to them the better."

As Addison and I were talking over this piece of advice, later in the
day, I asked him whether he believed that Tibbetts or any of his crew
would set our barns afire, if the Old Squire took steps to enforce the
liquor law against them.

"I guess they wouldn't dare do that," said Addison.

I then mentioned what Halse had said. Addison was greatly irritated, not
so much from the covert threat implied, as to think that Halse sided
against the Temperance movement.

"Now you see," said Addison, "if we do make a move against Tibbetts,
Halse will be a traitor and carry word to him ahead. We shall have to
watch him and never drop a word about our plans before him." He then
told me, confidentially, that the Temperance sentiment had grown so
strong, that its advocates hoped to be able to get Tibbetts indicted
that fall and so close up his "grocery."

Addison and Theodora, as well as the Old Squire, thought that if the
Corners clique could be broken up, Halstead would be a far better boy.
Liquor was the only bond which held the clique together there. If the
illicit sale of liquor could be stopped at Tibbetts', not only Hannis,
but several others would leave the place; and probably Tibbetts himself
would move away.

I do not think that it occurred to either Addison or Theodora that there
was anything in the least reprehensible in conspiring to drive grocer
Tibbetts out of town. I am sure that I then deemed it a good idea to
drive him away, by almost any means, fair or foul.

CHAPTER XXIV

GOING TO THE CATTLE SHOW

About this time we began to hear raccoons, in the early part of the
night. There were numbers of these animals in the woods about the farm;
they had their retreats in hollow trees and sometimes came into the corn
fields. I first heard one while coming home from the Edwardses one
evening; the strange, quavering cry frightened me; for I imagined that
it was the cry of a "lucivee," concerning which the boys were talking a
good deal at this time. One was said to have attacked a farmer on the
highway a little beyond the Batchelder place. The animal leaped into the
back part of the man's wagon and fought savagely for possession of a
quarter of beef. Repeated blows from a whip-stock failed to dislodge it,
till it had ridden for ten or fifteen rods, when it leaped off the
wagon, but followed, growling, for some distance. As nearly as this ma