"There's Growdy's shack and barns!"

"Don't seem to be anything stirring, fellows!"

"Look out for a trap. Once bitten, twice shy. Perhaps he's just laying
for some fellers to come along, and play some more paintin' job trick.
I heard that he said he would find some way to stop the nuisance!"

This from "Red" Betts, who was known as a cautious chap, and able to
vanish at the first sign of danger better than any fellow in town.

"Suppose we hold up here, and send out scouts to see how the land lies?
That's the military way of doing it," ventured Bobolink.

"A good idea, and I appoint you, Bobolink, with Jud Elderkin, to carry
out the little business," remarked Paul, in a low tone.

"Trot along, you chaps; the rest of us will bunk right here alongside
the road and wait till you report," and suiting the action to his words
William dropped in his tracks.

A brief time elapsed, and then the pair of spies returned.

"Not a single light in the house, and the coast clear, fellows; so come
on!" and Jud waved his long arms as though enjoying his brief assumption
of authority to the limit.

It would have doubtless astonished the old farmer had he chanced upon the
scene just then. A young moon hung in the western sky, and while giving