“And keep a good heart! I’m sure it will all turn out well. Good by, Jack!” cried Annie, as Sellick drove away.
“Go back, Lion! back!” said the boy, hastily wiping his tears. “Say good by to Moses!”
Phineas, peeping from the barn, and witnessing these farewells, almost envied Jack, as he saw him ride off with the constable; for already that wretched youngster was beginning to feel there was a worse prison for the mind than a jail,—that of its own guilty thoughts.
STARTING FOR THE JAIL.
Deacon Chatford and the squire stood talking together on the roadside before Peternot’s house, when Sellick drove up. The sight of their two faces was enough for Jack. The deacon’s wore a disappointed and gloomy expression; the squire’s was grimly triumphant.
“Hold on to him this time, Sellick!” cried the old man as he limped towards the wagon, grasping with trembling hand his horn-headed cane. “If he thinks to work upon my feelin’s by this move, he’ll find he’s mistaken. I know his cunning tricks!”
“Squire Peternot,” said Jack, calmly, “I never expected to work upon your feelings. You can send me to jail, I’m willing. You can have me brought to trial, and convicted of breaking into your house, I suppose; for I don’t deny what I’ve done.”
“You see how shameless he is!” said Peternot, turning upon the deacon. “He’d as lives go to jail as not! Little he cares for public opinion, the hardened wretch!” And he struck the ground with his cane.
“If I’m sent to jail for such a thing, the shame will be on you, not on me,” Jack answered. “I should think you cared little for public opinion, to push a poor boy to the wall in this way!” his voice beginning to quiver with a rising sense of his wrongs.