"He didn't do nothin'," said Matlack. "When I got to the little tent he
sleeps in, there he was sittin' in front of it, as smilin' as a basket of
chips, and he bade me good-mornin' as if I had been a tenant comin' to pay
him his rent; and then he said that before we went on with the business
between us, there was some things he would like to show me, and he had 'em
all ready. So he steps off to a place a little behind the tent, and there
was three great bowlders, whopping big stones, which he said he had
brought out of the woods. I could hardly believe him, but there they was.
'You don't mean,' says I, 'that you are goin' to fight with stones;
because, if you are, you ought to give me a chance to get some,' and I
thought to myself that I would pick up rocks that could be heaved. 'Oh
no,' says he, with one of them smiles of his--'oh no; I just want to open
our conference with a little gymnastic exhibition.' And so sayin', he
rolled up his shirt-sleeves--he hadn't no coat on--and he picked up one of
them rocks with both hands, and then he gave it a swing with one hand,
like you swing a ten-pin ball, and he sent that rock about thirty feet.

"It nearly took my breath away, for if I had to move such a stone I'd want
a wheelbarrow. Then he took another of the rocks and hurled it right on
top of the first one, and it came down so hard that it split itself in
half. And then he took up the third one, which was the biggest, and threw
it nearly as far, but it didn't hit the others. 'Now, Mr. Matlack,' says
he, 'this is the first part of my little programme. I have only one or two
more things, and I don't want to keep you long.' Then he went and got a
hickory sapling that he'd cut down. It was just the trunk part of it, and
must have been at least three inches thick. He put the middle of it at the
back of his neck, and then he took hold of the two ends with his hands and
pulled forward, and, by George! he broke that stick right in half!

"Then says he, 'Would you mind steppin' down to the lake?' I didn't mind,
and went with him, and when we got down to the water there was their boat
drawed up on the shore and pretty nigh full of water. 'Mr. Clyde brought
this boat back the other day,' says he, 'from a place where he left it
some distance down the lake, and I wonder he didn't sink before he got
here. We must try and calk up some of the open seams; but first we've got
to get the water out of her.' So sayin', he squatted down on the