"Nothing very serious, Nancy Curtis, so don't begin to fret. Sam always was full of whims, an' I reckon this is one of 'em."
Jack fancied he knew what was wanted, and his heart was very light when he clambered into the wagon.
"I'll come right back," he cried, as the carriage rolled away, and Aunt Nancy sat looking at Louis as if speechless with astonishment.
"Is it about the cow?" Jack asked of Mrs. Souders, who sat stiff as a statue and quite as forbidding looking, holding the reins tightly in both hands, and paying no attention to the cripple.
She nodded her head, and Jack could not but wonder if she thought her breath too valuable to be wasted in words.
This was the extent of the conversation during the ride of ten minutes or more, and the hunchback felt decidedly relieved when it came to an end.
Mrs. Souders, silent and stern, was quite as disagreeable a companion as Mrs. Souders angry.
The cause of his having thus been summoned was, as he had hoped, a cow.
In the yard, with a halter on her head and a card tied to her horn, stood a meek-eyed animal which Jack thought a model of her kind.
Mr. Souders came from the shed as the hunchback alighted, and cried in his hearty, cheery voice,—