“Got him sure-’nough, Colonel Ledbetter. Captured him way off down by the ford!”
“I been trampin’ the woods for a hour lookin’ for him and I’m hoarse as a crow callin’ for him. Is he dressed up much?”
“Not much. Some durn fools would have took him for a ha’nt but I don’t never run from nothin’ and Suly here, she’s some spunky too.”
They drove slowly to the house the old man keeping abreast. The door stood open and from within shone the light of a flickering hearth fire.
Grover Cleveland shed his blanket, sprang over the wheel while it was yet in motion, and fled into the house and out of sight.
The old man chuckled. “The little feller’s right much ashamed of hisself when he’s found out in one of his spells. I reckon he cried some when you-all woke him up—he gen’ally does.
“Them that’s had nothin’ to cry for’s the ones that’s done the cryin’,” teased Thad.
“I don’t care if I did,” said Suly preparing to accept the invitation to “stop in by a spell.” “It must be a mighty nasty feelin’ to wake up in the woods at night and not know how you got there.”
“So it is, so it is,” said Colonel Ledbetter leading the way into the house. “I ain’t no mind to be stern with him, for he comes true and honest by the trick. I done it myself when I was a boy.”
He replenished the fire and lit a candle.