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Although Nelson Haley was touched by Lottie's sad condition, and by anything else going on about him that had the personal note in it, Janice thought the Poketown school-teacher showed very little public spirit. She began to realize that his overseeing of the reading-room and library was inspired by his wish to please her instead of his actual interest in the institution.
Therefore, Nelson Haley felt free to take the incident and nobody had been more vitally interested in it than himself for the text of a speech that he made in the big tent only a week or so before Town Meeting Day.
After supper the majority of the young folk, both those from Poketown and in the near neighborhood, began to play forfeit games; so Janice and Nelson Haley slipped away, bidding the kind old ladies good-night, and set out to walk home. The distance was under five miles; there was a good path all the way despite the mud in the driveway, and there was a glorious moon.
"I know something mebbe Mr. Haley would like to hear." "What is it, Narnay?" asked Nelson, kindly. "I I I hear folks says ye stole them gold coins out of the schoolhouse." Nelson looked startled, but Janice almost sprang out of her seat. "Oh, Jim Narnay!" she cried, "can you clear Mr. Haley? Do you know who did it?" "I see you you and schoolmaster air fond of each other," said the man.
Her mother was a well-to-do widow, and the parents of the other girls were wealthy, but made no display of their means. As I have noted, Will's foolish prank had brought its punishment, though perhaps he did not merit it as much as did some of his chums. One, Frank Haley, had been expelled, and another had been suspended for three weeks.
One crowd says Mr. Haley would steal candy from a blind baby, an' t'other says his overcoat fits him so tight across't the shoulders 'cause his wings is sproutin'. Haw! haw! haw!" "And what d' ye say, Mr. Dexter?" asked Aunt 'Mira, bluntly. The expressman puckered his lips into a curious expression. "I tell ye what," he said. "Knowin' Mr.
Nelson Haley entered into the spirit of the affair and wrote down Janice's personal history to date, just as briefly and clearly as the girl gave it under the operator's questioning. Young Haley added a few notes of his own, which he explained in the operator's ear before the latter tapped out his message to New York.
She also tells us, that there were various negro cabins on the place; each cabin must have contained one family of negroes at least, if not more. She speaks of a couple of negro men who went with Haley, the trader, in search of Eliza and her child. The labor on Shelby's farm was performed by slaves, and it is a fair supposition, that there were from fifty to seventy-five slaves on the farm.
"These yer 's a little too small for his build," said Haley, showing the fetters, and pointing out to Tom. "Lor! now, if thar an't Shelby's Tom. He han't sold him, now?" said the smith. "Yes, he has," said Haley. "Now, ye don't! well, reely," said the smith, "who'd a thought it! Why, ye needn't go to fetterin' him up this yer way. He's the faithfullest, best crittur "
These doubts, however, did not switch Janice Day's thought off the line of the stolen gold coins. The five dollar gold piece found in the possession of Jim Narnay still raised in the girl's mind a number of queries. It was a mystery, she believed, that when solved might aid in clearing Nelson Haley of suspicion.
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