He did not want either of the two worthies whose names he had just mentioned to slip up and hear what he had to say to his mother.
"I don't know where they are now," was Mrs. Morgan's answer. "Daniel has been sitting there on the bank almost ever since you went away; but your father, would you believe it, Joe?—he has been down to the Beach to give up the setters that he has had in his keeping so long."
"Good enough!" exclaimed Joe, who was delighted to hear it. "I have been afraid that those dogs would get him into trouble sooner or later, and they would, too, if he had held fast to them much longer. Did he find the owner?"
"No; but he gave them to the landlord, to be kept until they were called for. I don't know what sort of a story he told regarding them, but he seemed to feel better when he came back."
"Have you any idea what induced him to take that step?"
"I think it was the fright he had."
"Good enough!" said Joe, again. "Those hants—for there are two of them—are the best friends we ever had. Now, don't say a word, for I want to tell you something before anybody comes to interrupt me. I repeat, they are good friends of ours. They have led father into making restitution of property that he never ought to have had in his hands, and they have been the means of—"
Before he told what the hants had been the means of doing, Joe stepped to the door and looked out.