Instead they told the Kid to ask his mother if he couldn't come and visit them in their new shacks, and promised indulgences that would have shocked the Little Doctor had she heard them.

So they went on to the house, where the Old Man sat on the porch looking madder than when they had left him three weeks before.
"Why don't yuh run them nesters outa the country ?" he demanded peevishly when they were close enough for speech.

"Here they come and accuse me to my face of trying to defraud the gov'ment.

Doggone you boys, what you think you're up to, anyway?
What's three or four thousand acres when they're swarming in here like flies to a butcherin'?
They can't make a living--serve 'em right.

What you doggone rowdies want now ?" Not a cordial welcome, that--if they went no deeper than his words.