THE THREE CONFEDERATES, 899

of them merrily told them, if they were ground-landlords, he hoped,
if they built tenements upon their land and made improvements,
they would, according to the custom of landlords, grant them a
long lease, and bid them go fetch a scrivener to draw the writings.
One of the three, swearing and raging, told them they should see
they were not in jest; and going to a little place at a distance,
where the honest men had made a fire to dress their victuals, he
takes a firebrand and claps it to the outside of their hut, and very
fairly set it on fire;
and it would have
been all burned
down in a few
minutes, if one of
the two had not
ran to the fellow,
thrust him away,
and trod the fire
out with his feet,
and that not with-
out some difficulty
too.

The fellow was
in such a rage at
the honest man’s
thrusting him a-

 

way, that he re- “WE TRODE THE FIRE OUT WITH HIS ve AND THAT
turned upon im NOT WITHOUT SOME DIFFICULTY.
with a pole he had in his hand, and, had not the man avoided
the blow very nimbly, and run into the hut, he had ended his
days at once. His comrade, seeing the danger they were both in,
ran in after him; and immediately they came both out with their
muskets, and the man that was first struck at with the pole
knocked the fellow down, that had begun the quarrel, with the
stock of his musket, and that before the other two could come to
help him; and then, seeing the rest come at them, they stood to-
gether, and presenting the other ends of their pieces to them, bade
them stand off.

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