Meanwhile Cub held his pair of bags open, and the coin was emptied into them. The squire stooped with many a groan to pick up the scattered pieces that rolled on the ground. Then the well-freighted trousers were set astride Hank’s lofty neck; at which he began to prance and kick up, in playful imitation of a colt—or should we say a giraffe?—with a strange rider.
“Now ye needn’t but one of ye go with me,” said Peternot; “or at the most two.”
“Two can’t carry all that silver,” said Cub. “We must all help. And edge along towards Aunt Patsy’s wood-lot, if ye don’t want to meet Jack and the deacon. Comin’, Hod?”
“I can’t without my breeches!” replied the discontented youth.
In no very pleasant mood he saw his trousers ride off on Hank’s shoulders,—still visible above the undergrowth after the squire and the rest of his odd escort had disappeared from view. So great indeed was Hod’s chagrin at being left behind in this way, that he found it necessary at once to set himself about some sort of mischief. First he broke open the best of the remaining melons, and ate as much as he could of them. Then he gathered up all the rinds and fragments and placed them in the basket, together with bits of rotten wood, covering the whole with the frock which Jack had left spread over the coin.
“Now when he comes he’ll think his money is there, till he looks, then won’t he be mad!” With which happy thought Hod ran and hid in some bushes, where he could watch the fun.
Meanwhile Hod’s trousers, with their legs full of coin, were shifted from shoulder to shoulder of his big brothers, as the strange procession emerged from the woods and moved across Peternot’s pasture, the squire lamely bringing up the rear. Arrived at his house, he brought out a meal-sack, and the coin was emptied into it. He then took two of the half-dollars and offered them to Hank.
“What’s that fer?” said the tall youth, stooping to look at the money as if it had been some curious insect.
“I owe ye a dollar,” said Peternot.
“So ye du,” replied Hank, “but I prefer to take my pay in money as is money, if it’s the same thing to you.”