Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/103

 the assistance of the guides, kept the tables well supplied.

Things went on in this way for a month, during which Matt and his boys had twice been thrust into the calaboose for attempting to "run the town" to suit themselves, and at the end of that time the trustees decided that he and his family were of no use in Mount Airy, and that they had better go somewhere else. On the day the lawn tennis party was held, a notice to Matt Coyle to pull down his shanty and vacate the ground of which he had taken unauthorized possession, was given to a constable, and Tom Bigden and his cousins happened along just as the officer had begun to read it to him. The boys knew that there was something going on in the settlement before they came within sight of it, for when the officer took the notice from his pocket the squatter declared that he would not have any papers served on him: and then followed a loud and angry altercation in which Matt Coyle and his family, the constable and half a dozen guides took part. Tom and his companions quickened their pace to a run, and arrived upon the scene