He started home at once to tell his wife the good fortune that had befallen them. He had almost reached home when he stopped, suddenly realizing that the first thing Susanna would do would be to spread the news broadcast throughout the village. Then of course the government would get wind of his find and presently officers of the law would come and confiscate the entire treasure.
“That would never do,” he told himself. “I must think out some plan whereby I can let Susanna know about the treasure without risking the loss of it.”
He puzzled over the matter for a long time and at last hit upon something that he thought might prove successful.
In his nets that day he had caught a pike and in one of his snares he had found a grouse. He went back now to the river and put the bird in the fishnet, and then he went to the woods and put the fish in the snare. This done he went home and at once told Susanna about the buried treasure which was going to be the means of making their old age comfortable.
She flew at once into great excitement.
“La! La! A buried treasure! Whoever heard of such luck! Oh, how all the neighbors will envy us when they hear about it! I can hardly wait to tell them!”
“But they mustn’t hear!” her husband told her. “You don’t want the officers of the law coming and taking it all from us, do you?”
“That would be a nice how-do-you-do!” Susanna cried. “What! Come and take our treasure that you found yourself in the forest?”
“Yes, my dear, that’s exactly what they’d do if once they heard about it.”
“Well, you can depend upon it, my dear husband, not a soul will hear about it from me!”