Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/279

 the squatter, as Joe tossed the bacon into the skiff. "I want it an' I'm goin' to have it, I tell you."

"We don't know that these provisions rightfully belong to you," said Roy. "We have an idea that you stole them last night or, rather,—" "No, I didn't steel 'em nuther," shouted Matt.

"Or, rather, that one of your boys did," continued Roy, while Joe hung on to the side of the skiff and looked over it at the angry party on the shore. "I am sure we don't want them."

"Then bring 'em ashore like we told you," screamed the old woman. "You're thieves yourselves if you keep 'em."

"Do you see any thing green about us?" demanded Arthur. "I'll tell you what we will do: If you will stay there on the bank in plain sight until we get our boat raised, we will go up the creek and leave the potatoes and bacon opposite the mouth of the trout brook, so that you can get them after we have gone away. What are you going to do with those sticks?"