“I think I will drive going back,” said he, “He is going toward home now, and perhaps I can make him step pearter than you did.”
Caleb saw through his father’s little trick, but he gave in to it without saying a word. He was going to have the handling of the rifle now, and he breathed a good deal easier as he clutched the weapon and seated himself on the seat beside Jonas. He did not care if Nat had three or four ghosts to back him up. He was a sure shot with a gun, and he was certain that there would be one ghost less in the country should one show himself.
The old horse stepped out wonderfully under the new driver, and it was not long before Jonas’s courage all came back to him and he could talk about what happened there in Mr. Nickerson’s dooryard without shouting himself hoarse.
“That there is what’s the matter with us, Caleb,” said he, turning on his seat and greeting him with an approving wink. “It beats the world, as long as I have lived in this country, that I did not think of that rabbit’s foot before I left home. But we will try them again some day—”
“It has got to be pretty soon too, pap,” interrupted Caleb. “Nat has seen that money already. He has got it hidden somewhere else.”
“I believe you are right,” said Jonas, “or else how come that dirt on his spade? And to think we had to give it up just on account of not having that rabbit’s foot! These little things sometimes make big changes in our affairs, Caleb?”
Caleb must have thought of this matter all the way home, but he breathed a little easier when the ancestral roof came in sight. His mother was there and she came down to the bars to lower them. As the tired old horse entered the yard she looked at Jonas, but the latter shook his head in a most discouraging manner.
“I just knew how it would be,” said she.
“And just on account of leaving that rabbit’s foot behind,” said Caleb.
“I noticed them, and I had a good notion to holler at you and tell you to take them with you,” said Mrs. Keeler. “But I supposed that you knew what you were doing.”