“Then this is what I think: Don’t stir us up. We are good folks, if you let us alone; but if you rile us up, we git hornety. I don’t say this to scare you, or any thing. But we are tough colts to ride without a halter.”
“Do you think we fear you?”
“I don’t say it. You may or you may not. But, you ask my advice, and I give it. Don’t cut up rough. Don’t go to smoothing us against the grain. Go with the nap of the cloth, and you’ll find it’ll work better.”
“Ah! How many men have you at Windsor?”
“Don’t keep mixing me up with the Windsor folks, squire. I don’t belong there. I am a Boston man, myself.”
“Then you won’t refuse to tell me how many men you have?”
“I would if I could. A good many had gone out to hunt and trade. All through, there was a pretty lively sprinkling of them, I calculate.”
“Do you think they have as many as we have?”
“How many do you reckon?”