What he wanted them for I could not imagine; and later, after sunset, as we were going home, I asked him why he had carried away a pocketful of auger chips.
He looked at me shrewdly, but would not reply.

Then, after a minute, he asked me whether I thought that Ben or Willis had seen him pick them up.
"What if they did ?" I asked.

But I could get nothing further from him.
It was that very evening I think, after we got home, that we saw the notice the tax collector had put in the county paper announcing the sale at public auction of the Cranston farm on the following Thursday, for delinquent taxes.

The paper had come that night, and Theodora read the notice aloud at supper.

The announcement briefly described the farm property, and among other values mentioned five hundred cords of rock-maple wood ready to cut and go to market.
"That's that old sugar lot up by the big ledge, where Willis and Ben were making syrup," said I."Ad, whatever did you do with that pocketful of auger chips ?" Addison glanced at me queerly.