Theodore Goodridge Roberts

“ Deblore and the Bears were there.
"Our smart young friend is sleeping it off," Tom said to me. "He had a busy night. He'll have to rub a quart of grease into his joints if he keeps up this wild life much longer."
Amy's eyes twinkled, but Sol's face was impassive as wood.
Old Glashner appeared ten minutes later.
"I overslep'," he remarked as he sat down and reached for the fried trout. "Nothin' like fishin' to make 'e sleep."
"Work will do it, too," said Tom. "Are you going fishing again today? It looks like a good day for it." ”

“ But even Deacon Trim would go into partnership with him if he was sure that there was money in it and a chance of injuring a Deblore into the bargain. But I suspect that his confederate is half-witted, like himself. The general, opinion is that the treasure, if any, has been found by Henry."
"I think I'll visit around among our delightful neighbors today. I may hear something."
"You'll wish you hadn't, Giddy. If you hear anything, it'll be unpleasant. You'll find yourself to be as unpopular in the settlement as I am. You'll be insulted, lad. Better keep away from them." ”

“ That's what the most of them live for, it seems to me, though Tom Deblore never done—did—any hurt to anyone round these parts, that I've ever heard about. Pa and I don't hold with them in that. Ruben Glashner's the worst liar and thief in the province, and a nitwit into the bargain."
"He dipped into a bag of mine and carried off some of my private papers," I said. "He carried them off the premises, but afterwards returned them. He can't read a word. What's his game, do you suppose?"
"The devil only knows. He was born crooked, and he's put a few more twists in himself." ”

“ He and his confederate will be kept busy all summer, clawing around in the woods and the hardhack, looking for hidden marks and counting their steps. It was a bright idea."
"Who is his confederate?" I asked.
"I haven't the faintest notion. It might be any of a dozen of the people of the settlement. There are a few who wouldn't stoop to associate themselves with Ruben unless they were sure there was money in it. He's not highly respected, you know. ”

“ She said that she hoped the old peddler was really Ruben's confederate, for she would like to think of him, picture him, toiling fruitlessly in the hardhack.
I moved on at last, found the canoe where I had left it and headed upstream. Is it necessary for me to state in so many exact words that Rose Jeanbard was not the sort of young woman I had expected to meet on Wicklow Creek? Consider it said.
Paddling with Wicklow Creek is one thing and paddling against it is another. I had to put my shoulders into the stroke. ”

“ Glashner immediately laid down his knife and pushed back and came after me.
"A young feller like yerself maybe wouldn't object to seein' a purty young woman now an' ag'in," he said. "If so, I kin tell ye of four or five as purty gals as ye'd find anywhars in the Province, right downstream in Guards Settlement. Now if I was a young feller with plenty of time on me hands, I'd know how to spend a fine day like this here. I'd take me a canoe an' I'd la'nch her——"
I shook his hand from my arm and walked away. ”

“ The Jeanbards are French. They haven't the hatred of the Deblores in their blood, as the others have."
The Jeanbard farm lay on this side, above the junction of Deadhorn Brook and Wicklow Creek, and nearer the Deblore estate than any other farm in the settlement by several miles. Tom told me this, and of landmarks to recognize it by; and he advised me to go by canoe and not to intrude any farther into the settlement than the house of Old Jules the Fiddler, I went away in the patched bark canoe from the bushes beside the steep path.
I was curious about Ruben Glashner's confederate. ”

“ He had failed to get away with my little gun, but he had confirmed his early suspicion of my simplicity.
"It wasn't nothin' but a friendly little joke," he cackled, and poured himself a second cup of coffee. "I wouldn't rob a smart young man, like the captain, not for a farm. But ye want to be real careful with that thar contraption, Captain. Ye might let it off accidental some time an' shoot yerself."
I DEVOTED that day to farming with Deblore and Sol Bear. Lion was with us, or about the house, all day, which was proof that Ruben was clear of the premises. ”