Well, pretty soon some of the fellows or somebody began saying maybe old Dad Veek would have to go to jail for setting his own barn afire, like I told you in the beginning. Then, after while, I heard my mother say to my father, that some of the Ladies' Aid ladies were bestirring themselves because they were sure that old Dad Veek wouldn't set his own barn afire, and they had asked Tom Burton to help them and he was helping. But one day we were up in my barn—me and Swatty and Bony—and Toady came up.
He came up the stairs far enough to see into the hayloft, then he stopped and when we saw him he came on up. I said:
“Hello, Toady!”
“Hello!” he said.
“What do you want?” I asked, because he hadn't been playing with us much.
“Oh, I just thought I'd get my dime lib'ry,” he said. “You don't want it any more, do you?”
“No, we don't want it,” I said, and he went to the starch box and got it, and he came over to where we were, and he said: “I guess you have n't set any more barns afire, have you?”
“What barns?” Swatty asked.
“Well, you did set one afire, didn't you?” said Toady. “You and George set Veek's afire, didn't you?”
Swatty stood up then, all right! He stood up and folded his fists.