"How did you catch him, Chi?"
Chi clapped his hands on his knees, and shook with laughter; then he grew perfectly sober:--
"I took a dark lantern along with me, just to kind of feel my way in the woods--but the children did n't know about that--'n' when an old screecher gave a blood-curdlin' yell, just as near my right ear as the engine down on the track when you 're standin' at the depot at Barton's River,--just then I turned on the light full tilt, and the feller sat right still on the branch, kind of dazed like, 'n' I took him just as easy as I 'd take a hen off the roost after dark, 'n' brought him home. 'N' just as I was goin' up into the attic in the dark, the shed stairs' way, 'n' the children was all listenin' at the top in the dark, the dummed bird gave such a screech that the children all tumbled over one another tryin' to get back to their beds, 'n' such screamin' 'n' hollerin' you never heard--the bird was n't in it."
Again Chi laughed at the recollection, and Hazel joined him.
"Did they make you do anything more, Chi?"
"By George Washin'ton! I should think they did," said Chi, soberly. "That last was March's idea, but Rose went him one more."
"What could Rose think of worse than that?" demanded Hazel.
"Well, she did. She blindfolded my eyes 'n' took me by the hand, 'n' turned me round 'n' round till I was most dizzy; 'n' then she gave me a rope, 'n' she took one end of it 'n' made me take the other, 'n' kept leadin' me 'n' leadin' me, 'n' the children all caperin' round me, screamin' 'n' laughin'. Pretty soon--I calculated I 'd walked about a quarter of a mile--the rope grew slack; all of a sudden the laughin' 'n' screamin' stopped, 'n' I--walked right off the bank into the big pool down under the pines, ker--splash! 'n' the children, after they 'd got me in, was so scairt for fear I 'd lose my breath--I could n't drown coz there was n't more than five feet of water in it--that they hauled on the rope with all their might, 'n' pulled me out; 'n' I let 'em pull," said Chi, grimly.
"I hope they were satisfied after that," said Hazel, soberly.
"They appeared to be," said Chi, contentedly, "for they said I should be president, coz I was so brave. But there 's other things harder to do than that."