'em down, the men had got through. They didn't want 'em."

Becky shook her head. It was a trick she had. She did it very often at the supper-table, while listening to the boys' gossip.

CHAPTER IX.

TROUBLE IN THE CAMP.

AVID," said Farmer Yates, one day,

"Drather suddenly, "wasn't it yester

day, that you braided all the horses' tails, but forgot to water them?"

"Yes, sir," responded David.

"And wasn't it the day before, that you gave sugar to the pigeons, and killed a dozen of 'em?"

"Well-but- I didn't mean to. I didn't know it would hurt 'em," stammered David, wondering dimly what the farmer was "up to."

"And wasn't it the day before that, that you were too lazy to pump fresh water for the hens, and filled the pans with ditch water, and gave all the chickens the pip?" "O!" said David, drawing a long breath. "I'm sure I—”

But the farmer unceremoniously cut him short, and went on with his catalogue of misdemeanors.

"And wasn't it the day before the henscrape, that you lost me a whole hogshead of cider, by forgetting to turn the stop, and flooded the cellar, and spoilt all the turnips, and beets, and carrots laying on the floor?" David nodded his head. "Somethin's to

pay," thought he.

"Well," continued Mr. Yates, "you ought ter have had your walking-ticket long ago; but I've been kinder keepin' you along, thinking you might turn over a new leaf. But there ain't any turn over to you, David, as I see. So here's your wages up to Saturday night, and you needn't come agin.”

Thus David was cut adrift with a threedollar bill.

This was but the beginning of troubles. Mr. Skittles no sooner heard what Mr. Yates had done, than he followed suit, and dismissed Jacob.

He declared that he hated to do it, and

that he was as willing to befriend the

Downs as ever.

"But," he added, "there's no more business in Jacob than in a jumping-jack. He's all for fun and play, and he's made Bob as light-headed as a top. Before Jacob came, Bob did very well; but now he ain't fit for nothing. He might as well go before he makes any more mischief.”

Mr. Skittles had reference here to Jacob's little affair with Mr. Podgers. Mr. Podgers, or "Skinny Podgers," as the boys had nicknamed him throughout the town, was a dried-up, miserly old bachelor, who kept house all alone by himself-who shuttered his cobwebby windows, and barred his dusty doors, and on no pretext whatever allowed any human being but himself to cross his threshold. Of course he was no favorite with anybody, and the rather flippant way he had been treated by Jacob would have passed without censure, had it not been for consequences.

It seemed that the old man had, in reality,

got very angry at Jacob's treatment of him in the grocery store, and he determined to make trouble if he could.

When the loaded truck drove up to his door, he was sitting up stairs, looking out of his chamber window, through a hole in the curtain.

The teamster rapped the skin off his knuckles, but Mr. Podgers did not stir to go to the door. At last, his patience failing, the teamster applied the toe of his boot, and kicked vigorously. The invisible Podgers sat still and smiled.

"Begarry!" exclaimed the teamster, who was lately from Cork. "Bad luck to yees, Mister Hodge-podge, an' I'll jist dump ye things right down in the snow foreninst yer door. Ye'll stale out, I suppose, like a thafe in the night, whin I'm gone, and take thim in."

So the groceries were piled up, and left. There was the barrel of crackers, the firkin of butter, the bag of coffee, with sundry other barrels, and boxes, and bundles, which quite barricaded the front door.