They have been good friends to me, but you were a stranger, and your life would have been in danger every day.
Years ago I procured a score of them from the mountains of Pennsylvania and put them into the thickets.

They multiplied like rats, and so I was armed against invasion.
"To prevent their escape I sank a screen of wire two feet below the ground along the base of the walls; I also posted a warning inside my gate.

Long ago I began to destroy them, and there were only a few left when you came.

They were good friends to me--excellent friends!" he repeated, rubbing his hands with a grim smile.

"For eighteen years I have been able to carry on my work unmolested.