Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/262

 old woman. "We can't tote it cl'ar to the lake on our backs."

"Course not. We'll burn it an' the punt, too. They won't never be of no more use, 'cause 'taint no ways likely that we shall ever come here agin', an' we ain't goin' to leave 'em fur them Mount Airy fellers to use when they come to the pondhuntin' an' fishin'."

The squatter need not have borrowed trouble on this score. There was not a hunter or a fisherman in the village who could have been induced to occupy his shanty or use his punt, for, like their owners, they were things to be avoided. But Matt and his family seemed to think that they would be accommodating somebody if they left them there, and the order to destroy them by fire was carried out as soon as they had eaten the last of the stolen provisions.

While his wife was engaged in removing the bedding and cooking utensils, and tying them in small bundles so that they could be easily carried, and the boys were at work hauling the punt out of the water and turning it up against the house so that the two would burn together, Matt busied himself in putting the