bigger than you; you are afraid of
him. You better tackle him with your gun."

"Waste powder and ball on that chump? Not me; I'm not afraid of any of
them Howards. I'm hungry; supper's about ready; let's go home. I shore
hope he comes to school tomorrow."

"Say, boy, are those your hogs? Why don't you feed them some corn?"

"They shore am poor. Them's old man Lewis'. He lives down the crick
below here. This time last year he turned them out to eat the mast.
After the mast was gone he still let them run and would go out with a
basket of corn and feed them. He's dumb, he can't holler. He called them
by pounding with a rock on a dead snag. Since the woodpecker's came this
spring them fool hawgs have nigh 'bout run themselves to death."

"Here, boy, take your gun; there's a squirrel."

"That's right; give her here."

"He's a nice fat one."

"Yes, there's plenty of nuts now."

"I don't believe I would reload her now; there's the house."

"Mr. Cornwall, I'll loan you my gun tomorrow and you can go hunting."

"You better let me have her all the time we are surveying the land."

"All right."

Cornwall was met at the gate by Mary and her mother; they both seemed
pleased to see him. Caleb took his horse to the barn and, removing the
saddle, turned him loose for a roll in the dusty lot. Then he was put in
a box stall and given three sheaves of oats.

"Mrs. Saylor, you see I am back and have brought three others with me.
We will be here a week. I hope you will not find us too troublesome. The
two chainmen will sleep in the loft on the hay, so as not to crowd you."

"We are glad to have you; come right in."

"Miss Mary, you must treat us like home folks; no extra work now or we
will move down to old man Howard's. Your school and those big boys are
enough of a worry."

"I have more time. They have another teacher at the school, Mrs. Field's
sister. They removed me because of father's conviction."

"Who?"

"The county superintendent and the trustees."

"When we buy your father's land, why don't you go east to school?"

"I have been thinking of that. What school would you suggest?"

"Go to one of the best--Wellesley."

The next morning at sun-up the party started surveying the Saylor
property. This they completed in two days; the boundary held three
hundred and five acres.

Cornwall insisted on carrying Caleb's rifle; but the only squirrels they
got were those killed by Henry Saylor. He was sixteen; a good