Do you ask what it was that suggested to them the idea of making the shiftless and ignorant ferryman the victim of one of their practical jokes?
Simply an accident, coupled with the want of something to do, and their innate propensity to get fun out of everything that came in their way.
On the previous day they made it their business to stand guard over the English partridges and quails which Uncle Hallet had "turned down" in his wood-lot, and it so happened that they stopped to eat their lunch within a short distance of Silas Morgan's wood-pile, but out of sight of it. They heard the creaking of the ferryman's old wagon, as his aged and infirm beast pulled it laboriously up the steep mountain-side, and not long afterward the setters, which accompanied Silas, wherever he went, spied out their resting-place.
But the animals did not give tongue, as they would no doubt have done if the boys had been utter strangers to them. They thankfully ate the bits of cracker and broiled squirrel that were tossed to them, and then went back to wait for Silas.
"That man has no more right to those valuable dogs than I have," said Bob. "They're worth a hundred dollars apiece, and no one ever gave a guide that much money in return for a single day's woodcock shooting. Who is he talking to, I wonder?"
"To no one," answered Tom. "He likes to talk to a sensible man, and he likes to hear a sensible man talk; consequently, he has a good deal to say to Silas Morgan. That's the fellow he is talking to."
And so it proved. The ferryman was engaged in an animated conversation with the ferryman, asking and answering the questions himself, and so fully was his mind occupied with other matters, that it never occurred to him that possibly his words might be falling upon ears for which they were not intended.
Tom and his companion had no desire to play the part of eavesdroppers. They were not at all interested in what Silas was saying to himself—at least they thought so; but it turned out otherwise.
Having finished their lunch, they began making preparations to set out for home; but in the meantime Silas reached the wood-pile, and, leaning heavily upon his wagon, he gave utterance to his thoughts in much the same words as those we used at the beginning of this story.
"I just know that I wasn't born to do no such mean work as I've been called to do all my life," declared Silas, stooping over, and throwing the perspiration from his forehead with his bent finger. "I can't get my consent to slave and toil in this way much longer, while there are folks all around me who never do a hand's turn. They can loaf around and take their ease from morning till night, while I—wait till I tell you. Such things ain't right, and I won't stand it much longer. The other night I dreamed of that robber's cave, with piles of gold and greenbacks into it, and yesterday I read about the finding of that earthen crock that was plumb full of money; so't I know I shall be a rich man some day. 'Pears to me that day isn't so very far off, neither. If I should come up here some time and find a letter telling me where there was a robber's cave with stacks and piles of money in it, I shouldn't be at all astonished; would you?"