And," he added cheeringly, "it may be a false alarm, remember.

We won't borrow trouble.
We'll just make sure of our ground, first thing we do." "It's always easy enough to be calm over the other fellow's trouble," said Phoebe sharply, irritated in an indefinable way by the oily optimism of the other.

"It ain't your ox that's gored, Mr.Baumberger." They skirted the double row of grapevines, picked their way over a spot lately flooded from the ditch, which they crossed upon two planks laid side by side, went through an end of the currant patch, made a detour around a small jungle of gooseberry bushes, and so came in sight of the strawberry patch and what was taking place near the lightning-scarred apricot tree.

Baumberger lengthened his stride, and so reached the spot first.
The boys were grouped belligerently in the strawberry patch, just outside a line of new stakes, freshly driven in the ground.

Beyond that line stood a man facing them with a.45-.70 balanced in the hollow of his arm.