Young Denny had stopped beside a sapling that stood in a direct line with the kitchen window, and was pointing down at a heap of broken crockery that lay at its foot.
“And if anyone was to ask you,” he was deliberately inquiring, “what do you suppose you would say that had been?”
Old Jerry knew! He knew without one chance for doubt; but never before had the truth seemed more overwhelmingly dreadful or surcharged with peril. A dozen diplomatic evasions flashed through his mind, and were all condemned as inadequate for that crisis. He knew that candor was his safest course.
“Why, I––I’d say it looked mighty like a––a broken jug,” he quavered, with elaborate interest. 130 “Jest a common, ordinary jug that’s kinda got broke, somehow. Yes, sir-e-e, all broke up, as you might say!”
His shrill cackle of a voice caught in his throat, and grew husky, and then broke entirely. Even Young Denny, absorbed as he was in his methodical exhibition of all the evidence, became suddenly aware that the little figure beside him was swallowing hard––swallowing with great, noisy gulps, and he lifted the lantern until the yellow light fell full upon the twitching face below him, illuminating every feature. And he stared hard at all that the light revealed, for Old Jerry’s face was very white.
“Jest a little, no-account jug that’s got busted,” the shrill, bodiless voice went chattering on, while its owner recoiled from the light. “Busted all to pieces from hittin’ into a tree!” And then, reassuringly, on a desperate impulse: “But don’t you go to worryin’ over it––don’t you worry one mite! I’m goin’ to fix it for you. Old Jerry’s a-goin’ to fix it for you in the morning, so’s it’ll be just as good as new! You run right along in now. It’s kinda wet out here––and––and I got to be gittin’ along toward home.”
Absolute silence followed the promise. Young Denny only lowered the lantern––and then lifted it and stared, and lowered it once more.
“Fix it!” he echoed, his voice heavy with wonder. “Fix it?”
Then he noted, too, the chattering teeth and meager, trembling body, and he thought he understood.