“Hi, youngster! if ye ain’t a brazen chap I’ll hoe taters for the deacon a week fer nothing, and that’s the pizenest thing I could think of doing.”
Rob made no reply to this rude speech, but approached nearer the throng to find that neither he nor his friends, as he had half expected at first, furnished the topic under discussion.
“They ain’t far away, that’s certain, and somebody will run ercross them kerslap like in a way that’ll make their hair stand on end. Sich critters ain’t forgot their ’arly ways if they have been under subjection for a little while.”
“That’s so, Dan,” said another. “Hello!” catching sight of our hero, “if here ain’t a tiger o’ different sort. What has brought you to town now?”
“He’s come to look over the place to see where to begin his thieving,” spoke up some one in the background.
Unheeding this speech, Rob said:
“I am looking for the boys who were with me this morning. Perhaps you can tell me if you have seen them.”
“Do you mean the red-headed youngster with the freckled face and the pert little bantam with him?”
“I mean Ruddy and Chick. Ruddy has got red hair.”
“Well, I guess we can tell what has become of them, can’t we, Jones?” speaking to a companion. “If we can’t, Jackson, the chairman of the selectmen, can.”