Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/288

 could be changed from one hand to the other, and Joe and his chums were kept so busy dodging them, that they could not find opportunity to return the fire. But when the squatter and his allies had thrown all their clubs without effect, and thus disarmed themselves, the boys sprang to their feet and opened their battery. The first potato Roy threw took Jake square in the mouth, bringing forth another series of doleful yells from that unlucky young ruffian, and the second put the old woman's right arm in a sling for a week. At the same moment Arthur wiped out the insult that had been put upon Jim by taking Matt a whack under the eye that raised a lump as large as a hen's egg.

"Whoop-ee!" shouted Joe Wayring, as a potato from his own hand struck Sam's tattered cap from his head. "That was a bully shot. Look out! Here comes another. We ain't got no taters on this side of the creek, I reckon."

The fusilade that followed was a hot one, and the squatter and his family, finding that they could not stand against it, beat a hasty retreat