Three times within fifteen minutes did he ask in vain for a shelter, and then his courage had oozed out at his fingers’ ends.
“If Pip Smith was here he’d see that there ain’t much milk an’ pie layin’ ’round to be picked up, an’ it begins to look, Snippey, as if we’d better stayed down there by the brook.”
Master Snip growled as if to say that he too believed they had made a mistake in pushing on any farther, and the sun hid his face behind the hills as a warning for young boys and small dogs to get under cover.
Seth was discouraged, and very nearly frightened. He began to fear that he might get himself and Snip into serious trouble by any further efforts at finding a charitably disposed farmer, and after the shadows of night had begun to lengthen until every bush and rock was distorted into some hideous or fantastic shape, he was standing opposite a small barn adjoining a yet smaller dwelling.
No light could be seen from the building; it was as if the place had been deserted, and such a state of affairs seemed more promising to Seth than any he had seen.
“If the people are at home, an’ we ask them to let us stay all night, we’ll be driven away; so s’pose we creep in there, an’ at the first show of mornin’ we’ll be off. It can’t do any harm for us to sleep in a barn when the folks don’t know it.”
The barking of a dog in the distance caused him to decide upon a course of action very quickly, and in the merest fraction of time he was inside the building, groping around the main floor on which had been thrown a sufficient amount of hay to provide a dozen boys with a comfortable bed.
He could hear some animal munching its supper a short distance away, and this sound robbed the gloomy interior of half its imaginary terrors.
Promising himself that he would leave the place before the occupants of the house were stirring next morning, Seth made his bed by burrowing into the hay, and, with Snip nestling close by his side, was soon ready for another nap.
The fugitive had taken many steps during his flight, and, despite the slumber indulged in by the side of the brook, his eyes were soon closed in profound sleep.