I asked him if he thought that Tibbetts and his crew were bad enough to set barns on fire.
"Well, isn't the old gent and Ad trying to break up Tibbetts' business, all the time!" retorted Halse.
"But do you stand up for them?" said I.
"I stand up for minding my own business and letting other folks alone!" exclaimed Halse. "And that's what the old man and Ad had better do."
"Maybe," said I, for I was not altogether clear in my mind on that point. "But they are a bad lot, out there at Tibbetts'; you say so, yourself."
"I didn't say so!" Halse exclaimed.
"Why, you told me that you thought they took your money, didn't you?" I urged.
"I said perhaps I lost it there," replied Halse in a reticent tone.
Addison believed that if Gramp would get a search warrant, a part of the honey might be found in one of two houses, at the Corners; but the Old Squire would not set the law in motion for a few boxes of honey. We young folks, however, were much exasperated over the loss of the sweets.
Two cosset lambs were also missing from our pasture at about this time; and as Addison and I drove past the Corners, on our way to the mill with another grist of corn, the day after the lambs were missed, we saw Tibbetts' dog gnawing a bone beside the road.