Percy’s eyes twinkled like a clear, running brook, as they looked into Jack’s, which fell before them,—the lad remembering how really he had been a thief and vagabond in his heart, an hour ago. Yes, he understood.
“Think it over,” said Percy. “Meanwhile you will want a little money.”
“No, I sha’n’t!” cried Jack.
“But you will, though. Here’s a trifle, which you can repay when it is perfectly convenient,” added Percy, seeing that the proud boy would not accept a gift.
“Well, if you lend it to me,” said Jack, receiving the jingling coin in his palm. “I’ll pay you some time. If I can only get that money of Hank Huswick! I’ll go for it this very afternoon!”
“Well, good by,” said Percy, tying up his plants. “Keep your head and heart right, and you’ll do well, whatever happens. Come to me if you want help. You know where I live.”
And he sauntered off across the field, looking curiously at every bird and plant and stone.
“How happy he is!” thought Jack, following him with yearning eyes. “And I was just so happy once! Shall I ever, shall I ever be again?”
He revisited the spring, and afterwards made a dessert of berries in a wild field hedged by raspberry and blackberry bushes; then set out to find the Huswick boys.