"Who are ye a-talkin' about, Jane?" demanded the husband.
"Thet—-he—-oh, Simon, is it you? Why didn't you come before?"
"Couldn't—-cos I had these young whelps up an apple tree. But wot is it all about anyhow?"
"The big negro—-he wanted something to eat, and then he got saucy and he picked up your watch from the mantelpiece——-"
"My watch!" The miserly farmer sprang to the mantelpiece. "It's gone, sure enough!" he groaned.
"I saw the negro!" cried Snap. "He jumped that fence out there as we came up."
"That's right," put in Whopper. "He was running like a house afire, too."
"Where did he go?"
Nobody knew, but some thought he might have taken to the road.
Finding his wife had not been harmed, only badly scared, Simon
Lundy ran out to the road and gazed up and down, and the boys
did the same.
"I don't see nuthin'," said Pop Lundy.