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Only when the storekeeper eagerly insisted, "What hev Jonas seen? what war he gin ter view?" did Old Daddy bring the fore legs of the chair down with a thump, lean forward, and mysteriously pipe out like a superannuated cricket, "My son, my son hev seen a harnt, what riz up over the bluff a-purpose!" "Whar 'bouts?" "When?" "Waal, sir!" arose in varied clamors.
He sat silent, blinking in the sunshine that fell through the gourd-vines which clambered about the porch where Si had placed his chair. "'Twarn't much of a sizable sperit," Si declared; he seemed courageous enough now to measure the ghost like a tailor. "It warn't more'n four feet high, ez nigh ez dad could jedge. Toler'ble small fur a harnt!" Still the old man made no reply.
The sense of having dreamed was so strong upon him that he stretched his arms and yawned. The gleaming teeth of the grouped shadows demonstrated the merriment evoked by the query. The chuckle was arrested midway. "Ye 'pear ter 'low ez suthin' hev happened ter Purdee, an' that thar war his harnt," suggested one. The bold young musician laid down his violin suddenly.
An' then I'd remember ez his mother war a widder-woman, an' he war nothin' but a boy, an' boys air bound ter be gamesome an' full o' jokes wunst in a while, an' I'd feel like I war bound ter furgive him 'bout the harnt. An' then ag'in I got toler'ble oneasy fur fear the Law mought hold ME 'sponsible fur knowin' 'bout Birt's crime of stealin' the grant an' yit not tellin' on him.
"Whilst I'm a-goin' on this hyar harnt's yerrand" The logical Si brought up with a shiver. "I went ter say whilst I'm a-goin' on this hyar yerrand fur the harnt" This was as bad. "Whilst," he qualified once more, "I'm a-goin' on this hyar yerrand 'bout'n the harnt, I mought ez well skeet off in them deep woods a piece ter see ef enny wild cherries air ripe on that tree by the spring.
"Ye needn't be afeared ez I be goin' ter take fur true all I hearn ye say; folks air gin ter vauntin' the dead," he paused for a moment, remembering the caustic comments over the deal of the cards, then added, "though I reckon I hev hed some cur'ous 'speriences ez a harnt." She suddenly threw up both arms with a shrill scream, half nervous exhaustion, half inexpressible delight.
"Could you-uns sure be back hyar by daybreak, Watt!" he asked, fixing the young fellow with a stern eye. "No 'spectable ghost roams around arter sun-up," cried Wyatt, fairly jovial at the prospect of liberation. "Ye mus' be heedful not ter be viewed," the senior admonished him. "I be goin' ter slip about keerful like a reg'lar, stiddy-goin' harnt, an' eavesdrop a bit.
The sun was hot, and so was his heart, and when he reached home, infinitely fatigued and querulous, he gave his son a sorry account of his reception at the store. As he concluded, saying that five of the men had sent word that they would be at Jonas Creyshaw's house at moon-rise "ter holp him see the harnt," his son's brow darkened, and he strode heavily out of the room.
"Mis' Peters she knowed suthin' were a-goin' ter happen when she seen that harnt a-hoein'." "I reckon she did," said the blacksmith, stretching himself, his nerves still under the delusion of recent awakening. "Jim never hoed none when he war alive. She mought hev knowed he war dead ef she seen him hoein'."
As he bent to his work, scraping the two-handled knife up and down the hide stretched over the wooden horse, he added, "I hev got so ez I can't relish my vittles sca'cely, bein' so tormented in my mind, an' my sleep air plumb broke up; 'pears like ter me ez I hev got a reg'lar gift fur the nightmare." "Been skeered by old Mis' Price's harnt lately?"
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