"Take any one of them," she finally said in an angry tone, wiping the perspiration from her flushed face.
Jack obeyed without a word, but, thanks to the efforts of Bill Dean and his partners, neither he nor Mrs. Souders could gear the horse.
One set of harness was much too large, and another so small a goat could hardly have worn it, while all were strapped together in the oddest fashion.
This Mrs. Souders believed was owing to Jack's carelessness or ignorance while unharnessing the horses, and the more she struggled to fit one without regard to ownership the greater became her anger, until it was almost beyond bounds.
"My husband shall hear of this," she said wrathfully. "Put that horse right back, and he will come over to undo your wicked tricks. Don't speak to me, you little pauper," she cried as the cripple was about to reply; and dealing him a blow on the ear which sent him reeling against the animal, the lady walked rapidly out of the barn.
Jack rubbed the injured member an instant, looked about ruefully, wondering what could have happened to the harness, led the horse back to his place, and went out of the barn just in time to see Mrs. Souders sailing around the corner of the lane into the main road.
He walked slowly to the house, arriving there as the guests had seated themselves at the table, and Aunt Nancy, who looked as if she had been crying, asked,—
"Why didn't Mrs. Souders go with her team?"
Jack told the story of the bewitched harness, adding in conclusion,—
"I took every piece off as carefully as I knew how, and laid them on the floor, because there wasn't any pegs or nails to hang them on. Now it seems like as if nothing was right, an' in the whole lot we couldn't find a single thing which would fit."