seemed to be a certain odd mingling of respect, with an exultant sense
of proprietorship in him as a representative of their own class, a
farmer's son who had made himself as fine a gentleman as any of the
silk stockings, and could face down the Squire himself.

"Did ye see haow Squire looked at Perez wen Pete begun tew drum?"
observed Peleg. "I reckoned he wuz a gonter lay hans ontew him."

"Ef he had, by jimmeny, I b'leeve Cap'n would a hit him a crack ez
would a knocked him inter the middle o' nex week," said Meshech.

"Oh, gosh, I ony wisht he hed," cried Obadiah, quite carried away at
the wild thought of the mighty Squire rolling on the grass with a
bloody nose.

"I allers hearn ez them Hamlin boys hed good blood intew em," observed
a farmer. "Mrs. Hamlin's a Hawley, one o' them air River Gods, ez they
calls em daown Hampshire way. Her folks wuz riled wen she tuk up with
Elnathan, I hearn."




CHAPTER EIGHTH

GREAT GOINGS ON AT BARRINGTON


As the company from Stockbridge surmounted the crest of a hill, about
half way to Barrington, they saw a girl in a blue tunic, a brown rush