“Are you waiting for me to go up to Jonas’s house with you?”
“Yes, I reckon you had better. You have been up there and saw how the matter stands, and you can tell him better than I can.”
“I am mighty glad he won’t ask me to go back to old man Nickerson’s woods with him,” whispered Peleg, as he followed his mother into the house. “I wouldn’t stir a peg to please anybody.”
“What do ghosts look like, Peleg?” asked S’manthy, as she brought out a plate of cold bread and meat and set them on the table before the boy. “I have often heard of them but I never saw them.”
“Don’t ask me. I looked everywhere for them, but they would not show up. I’ll bet Nat can tell by this time how they look—that is if he did not get scared at them like myself and run away.”
By the time that Peleg had satisfied his appetite Mr. Graves had thought over the situation and determined upon his course. He would not go near Mr. Nickerson’s farm—he was as close to it as he wanted to be; but he would go up and tell Jonas what Peleg had seen. Jonas was a good fellow, and perhaps he would do as much for him under the same circumstances. If Jonas and Caleb thought enough of the money that was hidden there to go up and face the ghosts, that was their lookout and not his.
“You had your gun, Peleg,” said Mr. Graves, when the boy came out the door and put on his hat “Why didn’t you depend upon that!”
“Course I had my gun; but it was not loaded. I declare, I never once thought of that old single barrel.”
“If one of them had seen that gun in your hands—”
“Shaw! I ain’t thinking of that. I ran away so quick that I left it behind. Maybe Nat used it last night.”