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"HE air so peart an' forehanded a-viewin' harnts, he don't hev to wait till folkses be dead. HE hev seen Mis' Price's harnt an' it plumb skeered the wits out'n him." Perkins did not understand this. His interest was suddenly alert. He took his pipe from his mouth, and glanced over his shoulder at Byers. "What air Rufe aimin' at, Andy?" he asked, surprised. Byers did not reply.
"Jes' gin Jonas the word from me," said the young blacksmith, meaning no harm and laughing good-naturedly, "ez I kin tell him percisely what makes him see harnts; it air drinkin' so much o' this onhealthy whiskey, what hain't got no tax paid onto it. I looks ter see him jes' a-staggerin' the nex' time I comes up with him." Old Daddy rose with affronted dignity.
Ef they hev got the insurance ter kem hyar, they'll see wusser sights 'n enny harnts. Tell 'em I ain't a-goin' ter 'low no man ter cross my doorstep ez don't show Old Daddy the right medjure o' respec'. They'd better keep out'n my way ginerally." So with this bellicose message Si set out. But an unlucky idea occurred to him as he went plodding along the sandy road.
He usually exhibited in a high degree the hospitality characteristic of these mountaineers, but now it had given way to a still stronger instinct. "Si," he said, coming suddenly upon the boy, "put out right now fur Bently's store at the settlemint, an' tell them sneaks ez hang round thar ter sarch round thar own houses fur harnts, ef they hanker ter see enny harnts.
Ah, I see; those two knobs close together?" "Yes; the brute must have taken alarm, and glided back into the river. It is evidently watching us." "Beg your pardon, Master Carey. I thought it was games. Well, sir, it's a good job you see that chap. We know he harnts the place. Who knows but what you might ha' took a fancy to bathe there some day?"
"A droll scene that at the house o' representatives last night," said Mr. Slick when we next met, "warn't it? A sort o' rookery, like that at the Shropshire Squire's, where I spent the juicy day. What a darned cau-cau-cawin' they keep, don't they? These members are jist like the rooks, too, fond of old houses, old woods, old trees, and old harnts. And they are jist as proud, too, as they be.
Ernest was taken, and next morning held his brother's place on the prison-list, while, as arrangements had been made for a wedding, there was one, and a happy one, but Albert was the bridegroom. The hills about the head of the Hiawassee are filled with "harnts," among them many animal ghosts, that ravage about the country from sheer viciousness.
"A droll scene that at the house o' representatives last night," said Mr. Slick when we next met, "warn't it? A sort o' rookery, like that at the Shropshire Squire's, where I spent the juicy day. What a darned cau-cau-cawin' they keep, don't they? These members are jist like the rooks, too, fond of old houses, old woods, old trees, and old harnts. And they are jist as proud, too, as they be.
On this, the most benign day that ever dawns upon the world, was he led into these endless wastes of forest to be terrified by the "harnts"? Suddenly those voices from the earth again! One was singing a drunken catch, it broke into falsetto, and ended with an unmistakable hiccup. Rick's blood came back with a rush. "I hev never hearn tell o' the hoobies gittin' boozy!" he said with a laugh.
Few folks kem this way nowadays, 'thout it air jes' ter ford the creek down along hyar a piece, sence harnts an' sech onlikely critters hev been viewed a-crossin' the foot-bredge. An' it hev got the name o' bein' toler'ble onlucky, too," said Roxby. His interlocutor drew back slightly. He had his own reasons to recoil from the subject of death.
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