“Me?” roared the man, “never been ill in me life.”
“W—weren’t you out of work?” said William.
“Me!” roared the man again, “never been out of work in my life.”
“They kept interferin’ with my games——” said the little girl.
“You interfere with ’er games again——” said the man threateningly, “an’ I’ll——”
Bewildered, the Outlaws crept away.
CHAPTER VII
WILLIAM’S BUSY DAY
WILLIAM and the Outlaws strode along the road engaged in a lusty but inharmonious outburst of Community singing. It was the first real day of Spring. The buds were bursting, the birds were singing (more harmoniously than the Outlaws) and there was a fresh invigorating breeze. The Outlaws were going fishing. They held over their shoulders their home-made rods and they carried jam-jars with string handles. They were going to fish the stream in the valley. The jam-jars were to receive the minnows and other small water creatures which they might catch; but the Outlaws, despite all the lessons of experience, were still hopeful of catching one day a trout or even a salmon in the stream. They were quite certain, though they had never seen any, that mighty water beasts haunted the place.
“Under the big stones,” said William, “why, I bet there’s all sorts of things. There’s room for great big fish right under the stones.”