The next morning he ate but little breakfast, and seemed to be greatly relieved when he could sit on the bench with his pipe. He smoked and meditated for two hours (during this time all the members of his family had gone off about their usual vocations—Mrs. Evans to work at the house of a neighbor, David to the fields to continue the education of the pointer, and Dan to the woods, to spend the day in shooting squirrels and making a pretence of building turkey-traps)—and was then aroused by the appearance of Clarence Gordon, who was the very person he most wished to see. The boy carried his rifle in the hollow of his arm, and, as before, stopped near the cabin to bring a squirrel out of one of the tall trees growing by the roadside. Godfrey hastened to meet him, and was greeted with:
“You’re a nice fellow to keep a promise, are you not?”
“Mr. Clarence, have they heard of it up to the Gordons?” asked Godfrey, almost in a whisper.
“There’s an awful row up there among the negroes about a ghost, or some such nonsense, if that’s what you mean,” answered Clarence. “There isn’t a black man or woman on the plantation that can be hired to go near the barn, and my uncle is afraid all his hands are going to leave him to gather his crops as best he can. But, of course, that wasn’t what kept you away last night.”
“I reckon it was jest that very thing,” said Godfrey.
“Then you’re a coward and ought to be heartily ashamed of yourself. That’s my opinion of you!”
Godfrey jumped up and knocked his heels together, coming down with his feet spread out and his fists doubled up, as he always did when he was angry and about to say something very emphatic. But when he had done this much he stopped short, for he saw that he had not frightened the boy in the least. He had only surprised him. Clarence had never before seen a backwoods fighter limber up his joints previous to going into action.
“Well, what do you mean by that?” he asked, coolly.
Godfrey did not think it best to say that he had been getting ready to punish the boy for calling him a coward, so he replied:
“If you had seed it yourself, Mr. Clarence, what would you say?”