BOATS AND NETGnEOES. 38 



to now just get out tlieir tackle and try their hands at 

 catching a supper for this party, — and a good one, too;" 

 and by this time Thompson had lifted himself heavily to 

 his feet. ''I'm not selfish, — these chaps may have the fun 

 of taking the first trout." 



Wilkinson, like a merciful man, had seen to it, first of 

 all, that his beasts were imharnessed and hitched to the 

 liind wheels of his wagon and fed in the wagon box with a 

 bundle of ha}" and a suppl}^ of oats lirought with him from 

 his burn: and he now approached. 



" Them boats, boj^s, are hid up in the woods. You ain't 

 never sure of finding a handj' thing like a boat, up here, 

 when you want it, if you don't put it out of sight. Folks 

 don't exactl}" mean to steal, but they'll use 'em and don't 

 alwaj^s leave 'em just where the}" got 'em. Mj neighbors " — 



"Neighbors! — where on earth do your neighbors come 

 from,- Wilkinson V '" 



"Why, they're all around — that is, — I mean they're all 

 one side of me, that's a fact! — and the nighest of 'em is well 

 on to seven miles from me; — and he ain't much of a neigh- 

 bor, to be sure, for he lives all alone, and he's one of your 

 darn mean, half-squatter, half-trapper and whole-lazy fel- 

 lows that ain't one thing nor another. Then beyend him, 

 three miles further on, there's some more, and they're likely 

 folks, too, — got families and work for a livin'. I tell )"ou a 

 man's got to work some for a livin' and help somebody else 

 to live, — a wife and a chick or two, ma3"-be half a dozen of 

 'em, of his own, — to be a first-class neighbor, up here. 

 And my impression is — it majn't be worth much — that a 



