J. T. Trowbridge

“ Jack ran for liberty at first, but soon he began to run from the whip; while at each moment, as he gave signs of failing courage, Duffer’s rage and thirst for vengeance increased; for nothing so excites the valorous fury of your genuine bully, as the appearance of faint-heartedness in a foe.
Beyond the street, Jack kept the shore of the pond where it swept around towards the canal. He now regretted not having taken that course in the first place, yet he had avoided it for a good reason; there was the waste-wear in his way. ”

“ Percy took it with a smile. “There! now I’ve paid all my debts, I’m even with the world, and ready to begin again!—Yes, Kate, dear Kate! I’ll stay; I’ve nothing to go for now.—Old Lion! get down, you good fellow! you silly boy’s dog!” And Jack dashed away a tear. “You are all so good to me! I never was so happy in my life!”
And yet it gave him a curious feeling, something that was not quite unclouded joy, to see his two friends, Percy Lanman and Annie Felton, standing there, smiling, side by side. ”

“ As they emerged from the orchard and approached the house, they could see through a lighted window the family sitting round the evening lamp; Mrs. Chatford sewing, the deacon reading, Mr. Pipkin holding a skein of thread for Mrs. Pipkin to wind, and Phin and Moses playing “fox-and-geese,” while little Kate stood by looking over the board,—a picture of quiet domestic enjoyment that reminded poor Jack of what he had lost, and wrung his heart with grief.
“Everything is just as it was before; nobody thinks of me, nobody cares for me!” ”

“ HOW HOD’S TROUSERS WENT TO THE SQUIRE’S HOUSE. Hank leaned over the log,—his lank frame and astonishing length of limb favoring the execution of his stratagem,—and seized Lion by one of his hind legs while his attention was diverted by a feigned attack upon the treasure. Finding himself caught, the dog wheeled furiously; but on the instant Hank, swinging his hind-quarters upon the log, drew them between two prongs of an upright limb, forked near the trunk, where it was easy to hold him, with his head hanging. ”

“ Fortunately the sun on the surface dazzled Sellick’s eyes, or he might have seen a suspicious movement of the boy’s hands, and the quiet gliding away of the boy’s body through the clear depths, towards the arched opening in the masonry.
When next Jack came to the surface, he found himself in what seemed a long, narrow gallery, nearly filled with water; a low, vaulted roof just above him, and an opening at each end through which shone the light of the sky. ”

“ Jack, much as he thought of his hidden treasure, now for the first time in his life felt the utter worthlessness of money compared with the good-will and companionship of those we love,—a truth which it takes some of us all our lives to discover. ”

“ Wonder if you are ashamed!”
“Jack! Jack! don’t be saucy!” said Mrs. Chatford.
“Let him speak out; then mebby you’ll see what the boy is,” said Peternot, chafing with anger. “He has no respect for age. He sassed me to my face yisterday as you never heard the lowest blackguard on the canal sass another. I am amazed that anybody in this house should be found to excuse or stand up for such a profane, house-breakin’, hardened little villain!” ”

“ Meanwhile Cub held his pair of bags open, and the coin was emptied into them. The squire stooped with many a groan to pick up the scattered pieces that rolled on the ground. Then the well-freighted trousers were set astride Hank’s lofty neck; at which he began to prance and kick up, in playful imitation of a colt—or should we say a giraffe?—with a strange rider.
“Now ye needn’t but one of ye go with me,” said Peternot; “or at the most two.”
“Two can’t carry all that silver,” said Cub. “We must all help. And edge along towards Aunt Patsy’s wood-lot, if ye don’t want to meet Jack and the deacon. ”

“ Looking hastily about to see if he could better his situation, he cast his eye upon a prostrate tree, which some former gale had broken and overthrown, and from which the branches had mostly rotted and fallen away. It appeared to be hollow at the butt, and Jack ran to it, laughing at the thought of crawling in out of the rain. He put in his head, but took it out again immediately. The cavity was dark, and a disagreeable odor of rotten wood, suggestive of bugs and “thousand-legged worms,” repelled him. ”

“ Among Jack’s pursuers was one who, although a little later at the start than many, soon by diligent use of his legs and arms worked his way into the foremost rank, and at last took the lead. This was Sellick. If not absolutely the best runner of the crowd, he had certainly the best reasons for running. He had not only lost a prisoner, but lost him under peculiar and ludicrous circumstances. And although the jolly constable was a great joker himself, he did not surpassingly relish a joke of which he was the victim. ”

“ A TRUE FRIEND.
“I regard Squire Peternot’s course very much as you do,” said Annie, still soothing the lad, with one hand pressing his own and the other on his shoulder, “though I’m not so angry at him. He has acted according to his nature; not according to the Golden Rule, very sure. But how few people act according to the Golden Rule, Jack! If we were to quarrel with all who fail in that respect, I am afraid we should find ourselves in difficulty with nearly the whole world. No, Jack; it’s useless to fly into a passion with everybody we see acting selfishly and meanly. ”

“ Much of the huzzaing, I am happy to record, was for Jack. Men naturally sympathize with the weaker party in a struggle, provided they have no personal interest in it. Peternot was by no means popular; few cared for Sellick, except as a wag, whom it was fun to see circumvented; while, on the other hand, there was a general feeling that Jack, by his shrewdness and spirit, well deserved his freedom. So those who were first in the chase finally gave it up, and fell back as spectators, leaving to the constable alone the glory of recapturing his prisoner. ”

“ And, still sitting on the ground, Jack held his shoes between his legs, and guarded one side of the basket, while Lion guarded the other.
“What do you want of so much money,—a boy like you?” said the squire, adopting a more conciliatory tone.
“What do you want of it,—a man like you? without a child in the world, since you drove your only son away from home by your hard treatment, and he died a drunkard and a gambler!” ”

“ I’m talking just what a good many other folks talk, only not to your face. They say, ‘There’s old Squire Peternot, seventy years old, with one foot almost in the grave,—rich enough in all conscience,—don’t use even the interest on what money he has, but lays it up, lays it up,—lives meanly as the poorest farmer in town,—never gives a dollar, except when he can’t help it, and then you’d think it hurt him like pulling his teeth,—and yet there he is, trying to get Aunt Patsy’s little house and lot away from her,—making tight bargains, screwing his workmen’s wages down to the lowest notch’ ”

“ And he sauntered off across the field, looking curiously at every bird and plant and stone.
“How happy he is!” thought Jack, following him with yearning eyes. “And I was just so happy once! Shall I ever, shall I ever be again?”
He revisited the spring, and afterwards made a dessert of berries in a wild field hedged by raspberry and blackberry bushes; then set out to find the Huswick boys. ”

“ Promise to come and work for me, and I’ll go bail for you. You shall kind o’ work for your board till arter your trial; then, if you git clear, we’ll strike a bargain for a year. What do you say?”
Jack thought of his books, and of Sellick’s bad reputation as an employer, and said to himself, “If he bails me, he’ll expect me to hire out to him anyway, for whatever he chooses to pay. In a year I should be as hollow-cheeked and round-shouldered as poor Billy! ”

“ They walked on to the length of fence where the constable’s horse was hitched, mounted the wagon, and rode away, watched by more than one troubled and tearful face in the farm-house door.
Mrs. Pipkin set about her work with more than the usual fury which distinguished her on Monday mornings; while Mr. Pipkin went out to finish the milking Jack had begun.
Phin chained Lion to his kennel, saying guiltily to himself, “I ain’t to blame for his going to jail; I didn’t mean to lie; but I don’t care! folks were getting to think more of him than they do of me; and now I’ve got his dog!” ”

“ Come, is it a bargain?”
“I thought you didn’t make bargains on the Sabbath day!”
“Well, I don’t,” laughed Jack, “unless some good man sets me the example. I’m only a boy,—it’s easy to corrupt me.”
“Corrupt you! you sassy, profane—”
“Sabbath-breaker,” suggested Jack, as Peternot hesitated for a word bad enough. “What do you say to my offer?”
“I say, if there’s money in the log, it belongs to me, the same as this belongs to me.” And the squire, impressed by the importance of having some accurate knowledge on that point, vigorously thrust in his cane. ”

“ But we all do! You mustn’t go away! You have been better to me than my own brothers; they plague me, but you never do!—O Mr. Peternot! he ain’t a bad boy; Jack ain’t bad! Don’t take him off to jail!”
But there was no help for the poor lad then. Peternot was inexorable. Jack made no resistance. Mrs. Chatford, returning from a last fruitless appeal to her husband, kissed him tenderly, and said what comforting words she could. Mrs. Pipkin put something into his pocket, as she bent over him; and Mr. Pipkin told him to keep a stiff upper lip. Kate clung to him with affection and wild grief. ”

“ THE SEARCH, AND HOW IT ENDED. Constable Sellick was not a man devoid of feeling, for all his merry disposition. He stood gazing anxiously at the water, shading his eyes from the sun reflected in it; then, as Jack did not come up a second time, the worthy man was filled with consternation.
“Who are the good swimmers here?” he cried. “Go in after him, some one! You can dive, Len Edwards!”
“But I can’t dive like Jack Hazard,” answered Len. “I’ve seen him in the water with the Chatford boys. There’s nothing he can’t do in the water.” ”

“ Thus there are people all about us whom the world judges from having seen only one side of them, and that their worst side, while deep springs of human feeling lie hidden in their lives.
Jack murmured his thanks, and said, “I wanted to ask you more about that money. You said either Mr. Chatford or the goldsmith had made a mistake about it.”
“I’m sure on ’t,” replied Aunt Patsy. “So don’t worry over your loss. There’s no doubt but what that was Sam Williams’s trunk; and me and my husband knowed as well as we wanted to that Sam was a practised counterfeiter. Of course, the coin was bogus.” ”

“ Chatford, as sternly as it was in her kind motherly nature to speak. Then looking at Jack in the corner, “How happens it you are not reading your book to-night? It’s something new for you to be idle.”
“O, I don’t feel much like reading to-night,” said Jack, whose heart was where his treasure was.
“He’s thinking about his half-dollar, waiting to know if it’s a good one,” sneered Phin.
“Shouldn’t wonder if that half-dollar had dropped out of old Daddy Cobb’s money-box,” remarked Mr. Pipkin, taking a slice of apple.
“Mr. Pipkin! these apples are for pies!” said Mrs. Pipkin, in a warning voice. ”

“ Syd, who had crossed the street, and was walking towards the house, turned back at his uncle’s call, and approached the buggy, in a smart, stiff way.
“I haven’t a minute to talk,” cried the deacon. “Have you seen our Jack ride by with Neighbor Sellick?”
“Yes, about twenty minutes ago,” replied Syd.
“So long!” exclaimed the deacon. “Driving fast?”
“Pretty good jog,” replied Syd. “What’s to pay?”
“I declare, we must do better than this, squire, or they’ll be there first, in spite of us!” And Mr. Chatford chirped, and shouted, “Get up! go ’long!” ”

“ It’s the old story over again,—the rich man with large flocks and herds taking the poor man’s one little lamb. Much as I condemn him for breaking into your house, I’d rather at this moment be in his place than in yours, Squire Peternot!”
“Wife! wife!” expostulated the deacon, mildly; while Peternot stood silently champing the bit of mortified pride and resentment.
“I hope to be pardoned here and hereafter, if I speak anything unjustly or in anger,” Mrs. Chatford went on; “but I must say what is in my heart. The boy has done wrong; but consider, he is but a boy. ”