“It’s to wake up, an’ find it’s all a dream,” replied Mr. Pipkin.
“Ah! I guess Jack would be glad enough to wake up and find this a dream, money and all!” said the deacon.
Sellick meanwhile, as he drove away with his prisoner, beguiled the time with pleasant talk.
“Don’t you think you’ve been a little too hard on our good neighbor Peternot? You shouldn’t try to git money away from a poor man like him, even if ’tis yours. A very poor man, the squire! I don’t suppose he’s wuth more ’n fifteen or twenty thousand dollars; and what’s that? If he had a hundred thousand, he’d still be the poorest man in town; for he hain’t got anything else but money and property to speak of. That’s what makes a man poor. Now, there’s Mr. and Mis’ Chatford, they would be rich with barely enough to live on. You might have robbed them, and no harm. But a poor old couple like the Peternots, for shame! Then you must consider, the squire hasn’t had the advantages of society, and a good bringing-up, and the light of the Gospil, and edication, that you’ve had. You ought to pity him, and forgive him. Good old man, the squire!”
In the midst of his wrongs and grief, Jack’s keen sense of humor was tickled by these facetious remarks, while their undertone of truth and friendliness warmed his heart.
“You’ve heard a good deal about his son Paul,” Sellick went on,—“a hard case, Paul. His great mistake was, he thought it his duty to be spending some of the money the old man was laying up. He couldn’t see the use of a great heap of gold stored away, and no good times at home; solid sunshine in the bank vaults, and gloom in the kitchen. So he went wild. The squire whipped him once, for calling him a fool, after he got to be twenty years old; tied him up to an apple-tree; I was going by, and heard the rumpus. ‘Call yer father a fool, will ye? when ye ought to say venerable father!’ says the old man, and lays on the lash. Every five or six strokes he’d stop and bawl out agin, ‘Call yer father a fool, will ye? when ye ought to say venerable father!’ Then, whack! whack! whack! ‘Call yer father a fool, will ye?’ over and over, till I got out of hearing. Not long after that the spendthrift son and the venerable father parted. Paul took to gambling for a living, and drinking for amusement,—business and pleasure combined. You brought the last news of him to town,—how he went to bed drunk one night at Wiley’s Basin, and set his room on fire, and was burnt to death, and you afterwards got his dog, that was singed trying to save his master. One would have thought the old man would feel a kindness towards you and the dog now, but—he’s a poor man, as I said. Paul’s bad end seemed to cut him up a good deal for a while, but now he’s taken home his nephew in his place. A plucky chap, the nephew! There’s courage for you! Me and you now wouldn’t want to go and live with—with such poor folks, ye know, and feed our souls on the old man’s hard corned beef and the old lady’s vinegar, not for any length of time, just in the hope of coming into their money when they die,—would we? Not that I wish to breathe a word agin the Peternots; dear me, no! Best kind of folks in their way, though mebby their way is a leetle mite peculiar. Hullo! there’s some of your folks!”
“It’s Mose!” said Jack, his heart swelling with a tumult of emotions as he thought of all that had happened since he watched Annie and her cousin disappear in the direction from which they were now returning.
“The schoolmarm with him, ain’t it? A re’l perty face! See! they know you. Shall we stop and talk?”
“No,—yes. O, I wish we hadn’t met them!” said Jack, wondering how he could bear to tell his dearest friend of the trouble and danger he was in, and take leave of her, in such a situation.
“Say nothing; I’ll make it all right,” said Sellick.—“Good morning, good morning, Mose! Good morning, Miss Felton. You’re having an early ride this morning; good for the appetite; makes rosy cheeks. Me and Jack’s riding out a little for our health too.”