were passing in the boy's mind, for as soon as he could speak he hastened to say:
"You needn't be no ways skeary about meetin' us. We ain't forgot that you was the only one who said a kind word to us while we was down there"—here Matt gave his head a backward jerk intending, no doubt, to indicate the village of Mount Airy—"an' of course we ain't got nothing agin you."
Tom drew a long breath of relief as he listened to these words. Matt wouldn't do any thing to him, and neither would he injure any of his property.
"But as fur the rest of 'em, they had better watch out," continued the man, in savage tones. "I shan't forget 'em, an' I'll even up with them some day. It may be five year, an' it may be ten; but I'll even up with 'em."
"What are you and your boys doing now?" inquired Tom. He did not like the way the squatter glared around him when he spoke of the village people, and he wanted to turn the conversation into another channel if he could.
"We ain't doin' nothin'," was the surly reply, "'cause why, we ain't got nothin' to do
