your ears. Even were you
to succeed in so clearing your land, you would find ever afterwards a
set of very unpleasant neighbours to live among. I know some cases in
point, that occurred nearer home here. In fact, on some wild lands of
my own I had an instance of the kind."

"What, then, am I to do? Can you advise me?"

"Do as others have often done before you; and who have actually been
forced to the course of action I shall advise. _Should there be a
squatter_, and one likely to prove obstinate, approach him as gently as
you can, and state your case frankly. You will find this the best mode
of treating with these fellows--many of whom have a dash of honour, as
well as honesty in their composition. Speak of the _improvements_ he
has made, and offer him a recompense."

"Ah! friend Blount," replied I, addressing my kind host by his baptismal
name, "it is much easier to listen to your advice than follow it."

"Come, old comrade!" rejoined he, after a momentary pause, "I think I
understand you. There need be no concealment between friends, such as
we are. Let not that difficulty hinder you from following the course I
have recommended. The old general's property is not all gone yet; and,
should you stand in need of a hundred or two, to make a _second_
purchase of your plantation, send me word, and--"

"Thanks, Blount--thanks! it is just as I should have expected; but I
shall not become your debtor for such a purpose. I have been a
frontiersman too long to be bullied by a backwoodsman--"

"There now, Warfield, just your own passionate self! Nay, you must take
my advice. Pray, do not go rashly about it, but act as I have
counselled you."

"That will depend upon contingencies. Should Master Holt--for I believe
that is my predecessor's name--should he prove _amiable_, I may consent
to go a little in your debt, and pay him for whatever log-chopping he
has done. If otherwise, by the Lady of Guadalupe!--you remember our old
Mexican shibboleth--he shall be cleared out of his clearing _sans
facon_. Perhaps we have been wasting words upon an ideal existence!
Perhaps there is no squatter after all; or that old Holt has long since
`gone under' and only his ghost will be found flitting around the
precincts of this disputed territory. Would not that be an interesting
companion for my hours of midnight loneliness? A match for the wolves
and wild-cats! Ha! ha! ha!"

"Well, old comrade; I trust it may turn out no