"If you do go, Jack dear, it will be a lonely old woman you leave behind. I had gotten accustomed to living alone; but now it is different, and the house would seem deserted without you and the baby. Yet I am afraid something of the kind must happen to punish me for telling Mr. Pratt a lie. It is through a crime that I was enabled to enjoy your company, and we know what are the wages of sin."
Jack was not disposed to allow the conversation to continue in this channel.
He could not bring himself to believe the little woman had done anything wrong in letting Farmer Pratt think he and Louis were not there, and it made him impatient to hear her blame herself so severely.
"You see, Aunt Nancy, we would have to leave whether you done as you did or not, for how can we tell whether Capt. Littlefield or his wife are alive unless we go to find out?"
"Oh, Abner will attend to all that! He lived in York State so long that he knows nearly every one in it by this time, and when we hear from him the whole story must be known, for interesting himself in other people's affairs is what exactly suits Abner."
Jack could not be satisfied with this reply.
He believed implicitly everything Aunt Nancy told him, and she was so positive that there appeared to be no chance for doubt.
The little woman was called from the contemplation of the garden by that which, for a moment, caused Jack the greatest alarm.
The rattle of wheels was heard from the road, and an instant later Aunt Nancy said in surprise,—