After supper I went over and asked Mr. Jones about these children, and he replied, significantly, looking around first to make sure that no one heard him: 

“Mr. Durham, steer clear of those people.  You know there are certain varmints on a farm to which we give a wide berth and kill ’em when we can.  Of course we can’t kill off this family, although a good contribution could be taken up any day to move ’em a hundred miles away.  Still about everybody gives ’em a wide berth, and is civil to their faces.  They’ll rob you more or less, and you might as well make up your mind to it, and let ’em alone.”

“Suppose I don’t let them alone?”

“Well—­remember, now, this is wholly between ourselves—­there’s been barns burned around here.  Everybody’s satisfied who sot ’em afire, but nothin’ can be proved.  Your cow or horse, too, might suddenly die.  There’s no tellin’ what accidents would happen if you got their ill-will.”

“I can’t take the course you suggest toward this family,” I said, after a little thought.  “It seems to me wrong on both sides.  On one hand, they are treated as outlaws, and that would go far to make them such; on the other, they are permitted to levy a sort of blackmail and commit crime with impunity.  Of course I must keep my children away from them; but, if the chance offers, I shall show the family kindness, and if they molest me I shall try to give them the law to the utmost.”

“Well,” concluded Mr. Jones, with a shrug, “I’ve warned you, if they git down on yer, yer’ll find ’em snakes in the grass.”

Returning home, I said nothing to Winnie and Bobsey against their recent companions, but told them that if they went with them again, or made the acquaintance of other strangers without permission, they would be put on bread and water for an entire day—­that all such action was positively forbidden.

It was evident, however, that the Melissa Daggett element was present in the country, and in an aggravated form.  That it was not next door, or, rather, in the next room, was the redeeming feature.  Residents in the country are usually separated by wide spaces from evil association.

It must not be thought that my wife and children had no society except that afforded by Mr. Jones’s family.  They were gradually making pleasant and useful acquaintances, especially among those whom we met at church; but as these people have no material part in this simple history, they are not mentioned.

The most important activities of the season were now drawing very near.  The cherries were swelling fast; the currants were growing red, and were already pronounced “nice for pies;” and one morning Merton came rushing in with a red raspberry from the Highland Hardy variety.  I was glad the time was at hand when I should begin to receive something besides advice from Mr. Bogart; for, careful as we had been, the drain on my capital had been long and steady, and were eager for the turn of the tide.