"Will you take that fence down, and let us go past?" asked Mr.
Bobbsey, as politely as he could.
"No, I won't!" snapped Mr. Hardee in reply. "No!"
"But we want to go on down the creek," explained the twins' father, "and we can't get past the fence."
"I know you can't!" said Mr. Hardee with a chuckle. "That's what I put it up there for. I strung it last night—me and my hired men. I didn't think you'd hear, and you didn't. Give you a sort of surprise, didn't it?"
"It certainly did," and Mr. Bobbsey's voice was stern. "And I want to say that you had no right to stretch that fence across the creek to stop my boat. You had no right!"
"Oh, yes, I had!" said Mr. Hardee with a sneer.
"This is a public creek," went on Mr. Bobbsey.
"Maybe it is, in certain places," said the mean farmer, "but here the creek runs through my land. I own on both sides of it, and I own the creek itself. If I don't want to let anybody go through in a boat, I don't have to."
"Oh, so you own the creek here, do you?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, rather surprised.
"Yes, I do."