CHAPTER XXXVIII.
THE MORNING AFTER.
Bright rose the sun the next morning over the leafy tops of Long Woods, and smiled upon the pleasant valley.
It found many a trace of the previous day's devastation,—trees uprooted or twisted off at their trunks, branches and limbs broken and scattered, fences blown down, and more than one man's buildings unroofed or demolished.
It found Peakslow, accompanied by the two older boys, walking about his private and particular pile of ruins, in a gloomy and bewildered state of mind, as if utterly at a loss to know where the repair of such tremendous damages should begin. And (the sun itself must have been somewhat astonished) it found Mrs. Peakslow and the younger children, five in number, comfortably quartered in Lord Betterson's "castle."
It also had glimpses of Rufe, with light and jolly face, driving home by prairie and grove, alone in the one-horse wagon.
Link ran out to meet him, swinging his cap and shouting for the news.
"Good news!" Rufe shouted back, while still far up the road. "Tell the folks!" And he held up the pocket-book.
It was good news indeed which he brought; but the mystery at the bottom of it all was a mystery still.
The family gathered around, with intense interest, while he told his story and displayed Rad's pantaloons.