“How can I wait till he gets back, to know about it?” thought he, as he stood at the gate and watched the buggy and Mr. Chatford’s black hat disappear over the brow of the hill.
His revery was interrupted by Moses, who, noticing the boy’s unusual conduct,—for Jack was ordinarily no dreamer when there was work to be done,—called out to him from the stable-door, “Say, Jack! you’ve got to go and fetch the cows to-night; Phin says he won’t.”
“It’s Phin’s turn,—but I don’t care, I’ll go.” And Jack set off for the pasture, glad of this opportunity to be alone, and to muse upon his wonderful discovery.
It was a beautiful evening. The air was fresh and cool, and perfectly delicious after the shower. The sky overhead was silver-clear, but all down the gorgeous west, banks and cliffs and floating bars of cloud burned with the hues of sunset. Jack’s heart expanded, as he walked up the lane; and there, in that lovely atmosphere, he built his airy castles.
“If I am a rich man,” thought he, “what shall I do with my money? I’ll put it out at interest for a year or two,—I wonder how much there is! That’ll help me get an education. Then I’ll go into business, or buy a little place somewhere, and I’ll have my horses and wagons and hired men, and—” O, what a vision of happiness floated before his eyes! riches, honors, friendships, and in the midst of all the sweetest face in the world,—the face of his dearest friend, Mrs. Chatford’s niece, Annie Felton.
Then he looked back wonderingly upon his past life. “I can hardly believe that I was nothing but a mean, ragged, swearing little canal-driver only a few months ago. Over yonder are the woods where the charcoal-burners were, that I wanted to hire out to, after I had run away from the scow,—the idea of my hiring out to them! Now here I am, treated like one of Mr. Chatford’s own boys, and—with all that money, if it is money,” he added, his heart swelling again with misgivings. “Go, Lion! go for the cows,” he said; and he himself began to run, calling by the way, “Co’, boss! co’, boss!” as if bringing the cows would also bring Mr. Chatford home, with his report concerning the half-dollar.
“He won’t be there, though, for an hour or two yet,” he reflected. “What’s the use of hurrying? I shall only have the longer to wait. I wonder if that log is just as I left it!” For Jack had still a secret dread lest the unknown person who had hidden the treasure so many years ago should now suddenly return and carry it away. “I’ll cut over there and take just one peep,” he said.
So, having started the cattle upon their homeward track, with Lion barking after the laggards, Jack leaped a fence, ran across the lot where he had been at work that afternoon with Mr. Pipkin and Phin when the shower surprised them, and was soon standing alone by the log in the darkening woods. The sticks which he had stuffed into the end of the hollow trunk were all in their place. And yet it seemed a dream to Jack, that he had actually found a box of money in that old tree,—that it was there now! He wanted to pull out the sticks and go in and make sure of his prize, but forbore to do so foolish a thing.
“Of course it’s there,” thought he. “And I’m going to take care that nobody knows where it is, till I’ve got it safe in my own possession; then who can say whether I found it on Mr. Chatford’s, or Squire Peternot’s, or Aunt Patsy’s land, if I don’t tell? Let Squire Peternot claim it if he can!”
Yet Jack longed to tell somebody of his discovery. “O, if I could only tell Annie Felton, and get her advice about it!” But Annie, who taught the summer school, and “boarded around,” was just then boarding in a distant part of the district. The next day, however, was Saturday; then she would come home to her aunt’s to spend the Sunday, and he could impart to her his burning secret.