"I got it up to Barkspear's," replied he, laughing, as though he had done a clever thing.
"Then you must carry it back again, Sim. I won't have any stealing done!" I added, sharply.
"Hookie! You don't think I'd steal—do you, Buck Bradford?"
"Didn't you take that axe from Barkspear's?"
"Yes, I did; but that's my axe, you see; and that makes all the difference in the world. That axe was gin to me by Squire Mosely. His best cow got out, and came down into this swamp. She got mired in the mud, and couldn't get out. I dug her out for him, and took her home. Squire Mosely wanted to do something for me, and asked me what he should give me. I was going to say something to eat; but I felt kinder 'shamed. I was cuttin' wood for the fire, when he come over, with an old blunt axe, the only one Barkspear would let me use. So I told him I'd like a good axe, because I couldn't think of anything else I wanted. He gin me the best axe he could find in town. I used it when Barkspear wan't round; but I kept it hid away in the barn. I went up and got it after you left."
"All right, Sim; I don't want to have anything done that isn't right."
"What you goin' to do with them ropes, Buck?" he asked, as I threw the clothes-lines upon the raft.
"We want them to haul the logs out with."
Sim was in high spirits, and I concluded that he had filled himself again from the provisions I brought. I was confident that he would be satisfied as long as the rations were supplied. We poled the raft over to the branch of the creek; and, as I had the plan of the structure we were to build in my mind, we lost no time in commencing the work.
"I don't know what you're goin' to do, Buck," said Sim, as he picked up his axe; "but I can chop as well as the best on 'em. If you'll tell me what to do, I'll go into it like a hund'ed of bricks."