Failing to discover what did not exist, they marched the young men across the fields to the north of the house, down to the border of a dense swamp, and tried by means of threats and promises to induce them to confess the locality of the supposed concealed treasure. The boys, however, were no wiser than their father with regard to this imaginary deposit ; so that, in the end, their captore seem to have become convinced of their mistake and allowed them to return home. The boys becoming, as may well be supposed, tired of this sort of thing, which was liable to happen at any hour of the day or night, sought concealment on such occasions nnder the floor of the old kitchen (a detached building, as was commonly the case in the days when slavery prevailed, and as may still be seen on the old Quintard homestead), which Wiis elevated sufficiently above the ground to admit of a person crawling un<ler and lying down between the huge oaken beams. After two or three years of lodgment in this strange dormitory, matters .becoming woree and worse, and fearing that they might be smoked out or burnt out, as animals are sometimes from their burrows, they were literally compelled to take to the woods, where, in company with other young men of the neighborhood, they built a hut like an Indian wigwam in a secluded and unfrequented spot. This hut they thatched over with wattles and straw, in such wise as to make it water-tight, and thus had quite a safe and comfortable sleeping place.