diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 10901-0.txt | 1769 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10901.txt | 2187 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/10901.zip | bin | 0 -> 38165 bytes |
6 files changed, 3972 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10901-0.txt b/10901-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d41c61 --- /dev/null +++ b/10901-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1769 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10901 *** + +THREE YOUNG KNIGHTS + +By Annie Hamilton Donnell + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +The last wisp of hay was in the Eddy mows. "Come on!" shouted Jot. +"Here she goes--hip, hip, hoo-ray!" + +"Hoor-a-ay!" echoed Kent. But of course Old Tilly took it calmly. He +planted his brown hands pocket-deep and his bare, brown legs wide apart, +and surveyed the splendid, bursting mows with honest pride. + +"Yes, sir, that's the finest lot o' hay in Hexham county; beat it if you +can, sir!" he said approvingly. Then, being ready, he caught off his +own hat and cheered, too. + +"Hold on, you chaps; give the old man a chance to holler with you!" +Father Eddy's big, hearty voice cried above the din, and there was the +flaring, sun-browned "wide-awake" swinging with the other hats. + +"Hooray for the best hay in town! Hooray for the smartest team o' boys! +Hooray for lib-er-tee!" + +"Hooray! Hooray!" + +They were all of them out of breath and red in the face, but how they +cheered! Liberty--that was something to cheer for! After planting-time +and haying, hurrah for liberty! + +The din softened gradually. With a sweep of his arm, father gathered +all the boys in a laughing heap before him. + +"Well," he said, "what next? Who's going to celebrate? I'm done with +you for a fortnight. I'm going to hire Esau Whalley to milk and do the +chores, and send you small chaps about your business. You've earned +your holiday. And I don't know but it's as good a time as any to settle +up. Pay day's as good one day as another." + +He drew out a little tight roll of bills and sorted out three +five-dollar notes gravely. The boys' eyes began to shine. Father 'most +always paid them, after haying, but--five dollars apiece! Old Tilly +pursed his lips and whistled softly. Kent nudged Jot. + +[Illustration: He sorted out three five-dollar notes gravely.] + +"There you are! You needn't mind about giving receipts!" Father Eddy +said matter-of-factly, but his gray eyes were a-twinkle under their +cliffs of gray brows. He was exulting quietly in the delight he could +read in the three round, brown faces. Good boys--yes, sir--all of them! +Wasn't their beat in Hexham county--no, sir! Nor yet in Marylebone +county or Winnipeg! + +"Now, on with you--scatter!" he laughed. "Mother and I are going to +mill to celebrate! When you've decided what you're going to do, send a +committee o' three to let us know. Mind, you can celebrate any way you +want to that's sensible." + +The boys waited till the tall, stoop-shouldered figure had gone back +into the dim, hay-scented barn, then with one accord the din began +again. + +"Hoo-ray! Hoo-ray for father!" + +"Father! father! hoo-ray!" + +"Hoor-a-ay!" + +It died away, began again, then trailed out to a faint wail as the boys +scuttled off round the barn to the orchard. Father smiled to himself +unsteadily. + +"Good boys! good boys! good boys!" he muttered. + +"Come on up in the consultery!" cried Kent excitedly. + +"Yes, come on, Old Till; that's the place!" Jot echoed. + +The "consultery" was a platform up in the great horse-chestnut tree. +When there was time, it could be reached comfortably by a short ladder, +but, in times of hurry, it was the custom to swing up to it by a +low-hanging bough, with a long running jump as a starter. To-day +they all swung up. + +"Oh, I say, won't there be times!" cried Kent. "Five apiece is fifteen, +lumped. You can celebrate like everything with fifteen dollars!" + +"Sure--but how?" Old Tilly asked in his gentle, moderate way. "We don't +want any old, common celebration!" + +"You better believe we don't!" + +"No, sir, we want to do something new! Camping out's old!" + +"Camping's no good! Go on!" Jot said briefly. It was always Old Tilly +they looked to for suggestions. If you waited long enough, they were +sure to come. + +"Well, that's the trouble. I can't 'go on'--yet. You don't give a chap +time to wink! What we want is to settle right down to it and think out +a fine way to celebrate. It's got to take time." + +For the space of a minute it was still in the consultery, save for the +soft swish of the leaves overhead and roundabout. Then Jot broke out--a +minute was Jot's utmost limit of silence. + +"We could go up through the Notch and back, you know," he reflected. +"That's no end of fun. Wouldn't cost us all more'n a fiver for the +round trip, and we'd have the other ten to--to--" + +"Buy popcorn and 'Twin Mountain Views' with!" finished Kent in scorn. +"Well, if you want to dress up in your best fixin's and stew all day in +a railroad train--" + +"I don't!" rejoined Jot, hastily. "I was thinking of Old Till!" + +Tilly's other name was Nathan, but it had grown musty with disuse. He +was the oldest of the Eddy trio, and "ballasted" the other two, Father +Eddy said. Old Tilly was fourteen and the Eddy twins--Jotham and +Kennet--were twelve. All three were well-grown, lusty fellows who could +work or celebrate their liberty, as the case might be, with a good will. +Just now it was the latter they wanted to do, in some untried way. + +It was a beautiful thinking-place, up in the consultery. The birds in +the meshes of leaves that roofed it over twittered in whispers, as if +they realized that a momentous question was under consultation down +below and bird-courtesy demanded quiet. + +Jot fretted impatiently under his breath, + +"Shouldn't think it need to take all day!" he muttered. "You're as slow +as--as--" + +"Old Tilly!" laughed Kent. The spell of silence was broken, and the +birds overhead broke into jubilant trills, as if they were laughing, +too. + +"I guess the name fits all right this time," Old Tilly said ruefully. +"I can't seem to think of anything at all! My head clicks--the mowing +machine wheels have got into it, I guess!" + +"Wheels in mine, too!" Kent drawled lazily. + +"Wheels!" + +Jot sprang to his feet in excitement. In his haste he miscalculated the +dimensions of the consultery. There was a wild flutter of brown hands +and feet, and then the chestnut leaves closed calmly over the opening, +and there were but two boys in the consultery. One of those parted the +leaves again and peered down. + +"Hello, Jot!" + +No answer. Old Tilly's laugh froze on his face. + +"Jot! Hello!" he cried, preparing to swing himself down. + +"Hello yourself!" came up calmly. + +"Oh! Are you killed?" + +"'Course! But, I say, you needn't either o' you sit up there any longer +gloomin'. I've thought of the way we'll celebrate. It's great!" + +The crisp branches creaked as the others swung down to the ground in +haste. + +"You haven't!" cried Kent. + +"What is it, quick!" Old Tilly said. Old Tilly in a hurry! + +"Wheels!" announced Jot, deliberately. "You chaps had 'em in your head, +and that put 'em into mine. Yes, sir, we'll celebrate on wheels!" + +"Why, of course! Good for you!" shouted Kent. But Old Tilly weighed +things first in his mind. + +"That would be a go if we had enough to 'go' round. But you twinnies +wouid have to ride double, or spell each other, or something." + +"Spell nobody!" scornfully cried Jot. + +"N-o, no, b-o-d--" + +"Shut up, Kent! That's all right, Old Till. Benny Tweed'll lend me his +bike just like a book--I know Ben! Besides, he owes me a dollar and I'll +call it square. There!" + +Old Tilly nodded approvingly. "Good!" he said. "Then we'll take a trip +off somewhere. That what you meant?" + +"Sure! We'll go Columbus-ing--discovering things, you know." + +"Like those fellows--what's their names?--who did errands for people, +and had wonderful things happen to them while doing them!" put in Kent, +enthusiastically. + +"Errands? What in the world--knights? He means knight-errants!" +exclaimed Old Till, laughing. + +"That's a good one--'Did errands for folks!'" Jot mocked. + +"Well, what did they do then, Jotham Eddy?" + +"Why, they--er--they--they rode round on splendid horses, all armed-- +er--aaple-pie--and--" + +"Apple-pie--armed with apple-pie!" + +Old Tilly came briskly to the rescue. + +"Never mind the errands or the pie!" laughed he. "We'll be reg'lar +knights and hunt up distressed folks to relieve, and have reg'lar +adventures. It will be great--good for Jot! We won't decide where +we're going or anything--just keep a-going. We'll start to-morrow +morning at sunrise." + +"Hoo-ray for to-morrow morning!" + +"Hoo-ray for sunrise!" + +"Hoo-ray for Jot!" finished Kent, generously forgetting mockeries. + +The plan promised gloriously. When father and mother came home from the +mill they fell in with it heartily, and mother rolled up her sleeves at +once to make cakes to fill the boys' bundle racks. They would buy other +things as they went along--that would be part of the fun. + +In the middle of the night Jot got out of bed softly and padded his way +across to the bureau, to feel of the three five-dollar bills they had +left together under the pincushion for a paper weight. He slid his +fingers under carefully. What! He lifted the cushion. Then he struck +a match--two matches--three, in agitated succession. + +The money was gone! + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +Jot gasped with horror. The last match went out and left him standing +there in the dark. After one instant's hesitation he made a bound for +the bed. "Kent! Kent! Wake up!" he whispered shrilly. He shook the +limp figure hard. + +"Thieves! Murder! Wake up, I tell you, Kent! We're robbed!" + +"M-m--who's rob--Oh, say, lemme alone!" murmured poor Kent, drowsily. + +Jot shook him again. + +"I tell you thieves!" he hissed in his ear. "The money's gone! Do you +hear? It isn't under the pin-cushion where we left it! It's gone! +We've been robbed, Kent Eddy!" + +The limp figure strengthened as if electrified and rose to a sitting +position. Kent's eyes flew open. + +"What?" he cried. + +"Get up quick, Kentie, and we'll wake Old Tilly up! Maybe we can catch +'em!" + +"Catch who? I wish you'd talk English, Jot Eddy!" + +Old Tilly was slumbering peacefully, oblivious to thieves and +five-dollar bills alike. It took a long time to wake him and longer +yet to make him understand the dire thing that had happened. + +"Get up! Get up! We've got to catch 'em!" concluded Jot. + +"Yes, the thieves--catch the thieves, you know!" Kent explained. "I +don't s'pose you'll lie there all night and let 'em cut off with our +money, if you are Old Tilly!" + +Then something funny happened. Anyway, it seemed funny to Old Tilly. He +buried his face in the pillow and choked with laughter. + +"It's gone to his head!" whispered Jot, in alarm. + +"No, to his t-toe!" giggled Old Tilly, purple in the face. + +"Yes, sir, he's crazy as a loon. Let's call father, Jot!" + +"Hold on!--wait! It's all right, boys! The money is, and I am, and +everybody is! Just wait till I get my laugh out, won't you?" + +"No, sir, but we'll wait till you get out o' bed and that's this very +minute!" Jot exclaimed wrathfully. He was dancing up and down with +impatience. + +Old Tilly slowly brought a lean, shapely leg into view from beneath the +sheet. To the boys' amazement it was covered with a long black +stocking. Old Tilly, like the other boys, had been barefooted all day. + +"Thought I might as well get a good start in dressing!" he chuckled. +"Nothing like being read--" + +"Oh, come off!" + +"Well, I wish it would; there's something in the toe that hurts. Ow!" + +He drew off the stocking and gravely examined the snug little wad in the +toe. + +"The money!" cried Kent. + +"Yes, sir, the money!" Jot echoed in astonishment. + +"Why, so it is!" Old Tilly said in evident surprise. "Then the thieves +didn't get away with it, after all! I call that a lucky stroke--my +getting partly dressed overnight! No, hold on, you little chaps--don't +get uppy! I'll explain, honest I will! You see, I got up after a while +and put the money there for safe-keeping. I'd like to see the thief +that would look there for it! He'd get a good kick if he did!" + +It was half an hour later when the trio settled back into sleep again. +In the east already there were dim outriders of day trailing across the +darkness. + +Without further incident the three knights-errant got under way next +day. In a glare of July sunshine they rode away in search of +adventures, while Father and Mother Eddy in the kitchen doorway looked +after them a little wistfully. + +"Bless their hearts!" mother murmured tender-wise. + +"Good boys! Good boys!" said father, coughing to cover the break in his +voice. + +"I say, this is great!" called Jot, who led the van, of course. "This +is the way to do it!" + +[Illustration: "I say, this is great!" called Jot.] + +"Yes, sir!" Kent cried in high feather, "it feels as if you were reg'lar +old knights, you know! Isn't it jolly not to know what's going to +happen next?" + +Old Tilly's wheel slid up abreast of Kent's and proceeded sociably. + +"Esau Whalley's farm 'happens next,' and then old Uncle Rod King's +next," Old Tilly said calmly. "I guess we better wait till we get out +o' this neck o' woods before we settle down to making believe!" + +But three wheels driven by three pairs of sturdy, well-muscled legs get +over miles swiftly, and by ten o'clock the boys had turned down an +unfamiliar road and were on the way to things that happened. Before +noon knightly deeds were at their hand. Jot himself discovered the +first one. He vaulted from his bicycle suddenly, as they were bowling +past a little gray house set in weeds, and the others, looking back, saw +him carrying a dripping pail of water along the path to the kitchen +doorsteps. + +"The pail was out there on the well curb, asking to be filled," he +explained brusquely, as he caught up with them, "and the old woman +pumping into it didn't look as if lugging water agreed with her. +Besides, I wanted a drink." + +"You didn't get one," retorted Kent, wisely. + +Jot cast a sidewise glance upon him. + +"I said I wanted one, didn't I? Anybody can want a drink." + +"And take your remedy. Dose: lug one pail o' water for an old woman. +If not successful, repeat in ten min--" + +Jot made a rapid spurt and left his teaser behind. When Old Tilly had +come abreast of him again, he reached out a brotherly hand and bestowed +a hearty pat on his arm. + +"Good boy!" he said, and unconsciously his voice was like father's, +miles back in the kitchen doorway. It was the way father would have +said it. + +"That's the way to do. We'll pick up 'errands' to do for folks. What's +the use of being knights?" + +And Old Tilly's turn came next, in the way of driving the cows out of +somebody's corn patch and propping up the broken fence. If it took but +a few minutes, what of that? It saved a bent old man's rheumatic leg's, +and the gay whistle that went with it drifted into an open window and +pleased a little fretful child. + +"My turn next!" shouted Kent, gliding away from them out of sight over +the brow of a hill. + +"Good luck to you!" called Jot. "We're going into camp to take a bite. +No use being in such a rush." + +"When you come my way, drop in!" floated back faintly. They tilted their +wheels against trees and threw themselves down in the shade to rest. +Jot was ravenous with hunger. + +"Cakes are all right to begin on," he said, regarding mother's bountiful +store with approval. "But when I strike the next store you'll see the +crackers and cheese fly!" + +"I don't mind taking a hand in the scrimmage myself!" laughed Old Tilly, +munching a fat cake. "I say, wasn't Kent foolish to go scooting off +like that? Might as well have begun easy. I move we ride nights and +mornings mostly, and loaf noons. There's a moon, 'silver mo-oo-on'--" + +His voice trailed lazily into song. It was pleasant lounging in the +shade and remembering the hay was all in and adventures ahead. + +An hour or so later they moved on at a leisurely pace, looking for Kent. +The general direction had been agreed upon, so they experienced no +anxiety. It added to the fun to hunt for him. + +"Where in the world did he go to?" queried Old Tilly, laughing. "He +disappeared like a streak of lightning!" + +"I see him--there, under that tree!" cried Jot, waving a salute. "He's +lying down and enjoying life." + +But it was a tired old man under the tree, and, from his forlorn face, +he did not seem to be "enjoying life." He was very old, very shabby, +very tired. His unkempt figure had collapsed feebly by the way +apparently. What astonished the boys was the wheel that lay on its side +near him. He did not look like a wheelman. + +"Hold on. Old Till, I say!" called Jot in sudden excitement, forging +ahead to his side. "I say, that looks like our wheel--mine and Kent's! +I guess I know our wheel!" + +Jot was riding the borrowed machine. Kent had the one they owned +jointly. + +"You're right, sonny; it looks that way!" rejoined Old Tilly, excited in +his turn. "But we can't pounce on it and cut, you know. How do we know +what Kent's up to?" + +Jot grunted derisively. "Probably he's given it to the old duffer for a +birthday present--hundredth anniversary!" he scoffed. "That would be +taking his turn at doing knight-errands. Let's go right on and not +disturb the poor old man--" + +"Let's have sense!" remarked Old Tilly, briefly. "We'll forge on ahead +and hunt Kent up before we arrest tramps for bike-lifting. When he says +he's been robbed it'll be time to holler 'Stop, thief!'" + +"Yes, come on!" Jot called back as he shot ahead. "I haven't a doubt but +we'll find Kentie's got his bike tucked away all safe in the toe of his +stocking!" + +They came almost instantly into the outskirts of a snug little +settlement. The road was flanked on both sides by neat white houses. +Trig little children scurried out of their way, cheering shrilly. +Somewhere there was music. [Transcriber's note: the word "trig", above, +is as it appears in the original book.] + +"Hark!" Jot cried. + +"Hark yourself! That's a good hand-organ," Old Tilly said; and he +hummed the familiar tune, and both wheels sped on to the time of it, as +it seemed. The music grew louder. "Look up in that dooryard, will you! +Jot Eddy, look at the chap that's grinding it!" + +Jot uttered an exclamation of astonishment. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +Up in one of the shady side yards stood Kent, turning the crank of a +hand-organ! He was facing the highway where the other two boys were, +but not a trace of recognition was in his face. Ranged in a semicircle +before him was a line of little children shuffling their toes to the gay +tune. + +"It's Kent!" gasped Jot. + +"Or his ghost--pretty lively one! Where in the world did he get that +hand-organ? And what's he done with his bike? Why--oh!" + +Old Tilly added two and two, and, in the light of a sudden inspiration, +they made four. Yes, of course, that was it, but he would wait and let +Jot guess it out for himself. Jot had other business in hand just then. + +"Say, come on up there with the youngsters, Old Till!" he whispered +excitedly. "Come on, quick! We'll make him smile! He can't keep his +face with us tagging on with the children!" + +They left their wheels beside the road and stalked solemnly up the path. +The children were too intent on the music to notice them, and the figure +at the crank did not change its stiff, military attitude. The tune +lurched and swayed on. + +Suddenly, with a sharp click, the music swept into something majestic +and martial, with the tread of soldiers' feet and the boom of drums in +it. The faces of the little children grew solemn, and unconsciously +their little shoulders straightened and they stood "at attention." They +were all little patriots at heart and they longed to step into file and +tramp away to that splendid music. + +Again the tune changed sharply, and still again. Then the organ-grinder +slung his instrument with an experienced twist and twirl across his +shoulders, and took off his cap. + +"Look, will you? He's going to pass it round!" giggled Jot, under his +breath. "He'll pass it to us, Old Till!" + +"Keep your face straight, mind!" commanded Old Till, sharply. + +The organ-grinder handed round his cap, up and down the crooked line of +his audience. The two sober boys at one end dropped in a number of +pennies, one at a time deliberately, + +"Bless ye!" murmured the organ-grinder, gratefully. Jot's brown face +tweaked with the agony of keeping straight, but Old Tilly was equal to +the occasion. He assumed a benevolent, pitying expression. + +"Hold on a minute!" he called. "Here's a nickel for your poor wife and +children. How many you got?" + +"Five, sir, your honor," the musician murmured thickly. + +"Starving?" + +"Sure--all but a couple of the little uns. They're up 'n' dressed, +thank ye; bless ye!" + +Jot made a strange, choking sound in his throat. + +"Is the young gent took ill?" inquired the organ-grinder, solicitously. + +"No, oh, no; only a slight attack of strangulating--he's liable to +attacks. It was the music--too much for him!"' Old Tilly gravely +explained, but his lips quivered and struggled to smile. + +The whole little procession trailed slowly down the lane to the street. +At the next house and at all the others in succession, it turned in and +arranged itself in line again, prepared to listen with ears and dancing +toes. Jot and Old Tilly followed on in the rear. They found it hard +work to find pennies enough to drop into the organ-grinder's cap at +every round. Toward the end they economized narrowly. + +The small settlement came to an abrupt ending just over the brow of the +hill. The houses gave out, and the musician and his audience swung +about and retraced their steps. The children dropped off, a few at a +time, until there were left only the three boys, who went on soberly +together. + +"Oh, say!" broke out Jot at last. + +"'Tis not for the likes o' me to 'say,' your honor," the organ-grinder +murmured humbly, and Jot gave him a violent nudge. + +"Let's knock off foolin'!" he cried. "I say, where'd you get that +machine, Kentie? Where'd you get it? And for the sake o' goodness +gracious, where's your wheel?" + +"'Turn, turn, my wheel,'" quoted Kent from the Fourth Reader. He was +shaking with suppressed laughter, that turned into astonishment at Old +Tilly's calm rejoinder. If it didn't take Old Till to ferret things +out! + +"It isn't liable to 'turn, turn,' while that old tramp has it," Tilly +said calmly. "He isn't built for a rider. What kind of a trade did you +make, anyway? Going halves?" + +"No, going wholes!" Kent answered briefly, and would say no more. They +went on down the sandy road. When they got back to the forlorn old +figure under the tree, it was slowly rising up and regarding them out of +tired, lack-luster eyes. The wheel still leaned comfortably in its +place close by. + +"Me--bring--money. Play--tunes. You--buy--food," Kent said very slowly +and distinctly, pausing between every word. "He's a foreigner, you +know," he explained over his shoulder to the boys. "He no understand. +You have to talk pigeon English to him. See how he catches on to what I +said?" + +The old face had grown less dull and weary. A slow light seemed to +illumine it. As the little stream of pennies dripped into the +tremulous, wrinkled old hand, it suddenly flashed into a smile. Then a +stream of strange words issued from the old man's lips. They tripped +over each other and made weird, indistinguishable combinations of sound, +but the boys translated them by the light of that smile. How pleased +the old fellow was! How he fingered over the pennies exultantly! + +"Tell the whole story, old man," Old Tilly said quietly as they mounted +their wheels and glided off. "It looks like a reg'lar novel!" + +"Yes, hurry up, can't you!" impatiently Jot urged. "Begin at the +beginning, and go clear through to the end." + +"You've helped folks. Why shouldn't I? There weren't any old ladies +with empty water pails, or any cows in corn lots, so I had to take up +with the poor old organ-grinder. That's all." + +"All!" scoffed Jot, "Go on with the rest of it, Kent Eddy!" + +"Isn't any 'rest,'" grunted Kent, "unless you count the organ-grinder; +he had some-looked as if he'd rested. Well, sir"--Kent suddenly woke +up--"but without any fooling, you ought to have seen that old chap when +I came on him. He was all used up--heat, you know. There was a creek, +back a ways, and the water kind of pulled him up. He couldn't talk +English, but he offered me a black two-cent piece for pay. He turned +his pocket out to find it. That set me to thinking I'd make him a +little richer." + +"Of course! Go on!" hurried Jot. + +"Isn't any 'on.'" + +"There's honor," Old Tilly cried softly. "I say that was splendid, +Kentie! I like that!" + +Kent flushed uneasily. Old Tilly's face looked like father's when he +said his rare, hearty words of commendation. + +"Well, the organ-grinder likes it, too!" Kent laughed. "Now he can have +something to eat. Poor old fellow! He couldn't have gone through all +those dooryards to save his life! He was 'most sunstruck. I told a +motherly old lady about him, at one of the houses, and she's going to be +on the lookout for him, and give him a snack of meat and bread." + +They went on for half a mile quite silently. Then, without warning. +Jot suddenly began to laugh. He tumbled off his bicycle and collapsed +in a feeble heap. + +"Don't anybody st-op me !" he cried. "It's dangerous! I'm having one o' +my 'attacks'!" + +The others joined in, and, for a little, the woods rang with boyish +mirth. + +"It was rich!" stammered Jot. "Passing the hat round capped it!" + +"It was great!" laughed Old Tilly. "You're an actor, Kentie!" + +"Me! What are you?" + +"Well, I can't grind a hand-organ and pass round the hat like that!" + +"I could!" Jot cried, suddenly sobering down and going through the +motions of turning a crank with airy ease. "It's 'most too easy for +me!" + +The fun lasted until night. It was Saturday, and they rode until sunset +without further stops. + +"We'll rest awhile and then go on by moonlight," Old Tilly said. "It +will be jolly and cool then. Besides, we don't want to be on the road +to-morrow. I promised mother I'd see that you all kept Sunday." + +"And go to church ?" Jot said. + +"Yes, and go to church, it there's one to go to anywhere," Old Tilly +rejoined quietly. "I told mother I'd see that you fellows went to +church quiet and nice, if possible. She put in the extra collars and +neckties on purpose." + +A long rest, with a hearty lunch, and then they were off again in the +clear moonlight. It was splendid. The trees, the road, the pale, +ghostly houses--everything had a weird, charmed aspect. They might have +been riding through fairyland. It was growing late, they knew, and at +last they stopped, out of sheer weariness. + +A great, square bulk loomed faintly before them in the waning moonlight. +It might be a house--might be a mountain! Jot spurted on ahead to +reconnoiter. + +"House!" he shouted back. "Doors open--all quiet--guess it's on a picnic +ground. I felt a stair that seemed to lead up to a balcony or +something." + +"Well, we're sleepy enough. We'll take anything we can get!" yawned +Kent. + +"Come on, then." + +And, riding into what seemed a yard, they found a good place for their +wheels under some bushes. The moon was too low to give them any light, +but the boys found the doorway to the big building and went up the +stairs, guided by their hands along the narrow passageway. They could +only discern a queer little enclosure, topped by a little rail. They +were too thoroughly tired out to be curious, and, feeling some narrow +seats, they lay down, and, making themselves comfortable, were soon +asleep. + +Jot was dreaming that Old Tilly had made him go to church and the people +were singing, when suddenly he opened his eyes. Was he dreaming? Over +him floated a sweet hymn, one his mother loved to join in singing at +church Sunday morning. The boy's eyes opened wider still at sight of +flecks of sunshine dancing on the walls near, and, raising his head, he +saw through the clear little panes of a long window, where the green +leaves were dancing against the glass. The singing went on, and the boy +raised himself in a wondering fashion upon his elbow. Where were they? +Jot lifted his head still higher, and, glancing over the railing, he +looked down upon a goodly company. The amazement on his face grew +greater instead of less. They were in church!--that was sure. Jot +looked back to his sleeping companions and held his breath as one of +them stirred uneasily. What if he should roll off the bench? The hymn +grew louder and sweeter, and Jot smoothed out his hair and straightened +his necktie and sat up straight. The branches outside tapped the +narrow, small paned window near him, and from the open windows below the +sweet beauty of the summer morning stole in. But as the minister rose +to give out his text, a sound from one of the boys back of him caused +Jot to turn. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Jot turned in his narrow seat there in the church gallery as he heard a +sound that made him think his brothers were waking. But Old Tilly had +only stirred in his sleep and struck out a little jarringly against the +back of the narrow gallery pew. Jot turned back and scanned the place +they had so innocently taken for their quarters the night before. The +gallery pew they were in was like a tiny half-walled room, with seats +running around three sides and up to the queer door on the fourth side. +The walls of the pews were almost as high as Jot's head if he had dared +to stand up. + +Kent stirred uneasily and threw out his arm with a smart rap against the +side. Jot crept across to him in terror. "Sh! Sh! Keep quiet! don't +breathe! You're in meeting!" he whispered. "The minister's down there +preaching now! Oh, sh!" + +"Lemme--" But Jot's hand cut off the rest. The other hand gently shook +Kent's arm. + +"I tell you we're in meeting; don't make a sound!" + +"Who's making a sound?" whispered Kent, now thoroughly awake. Was Jot +taken suddenly crazy? Hark! who was that talking? + +"If you don't believe me, raise your eye over that wall and sec what!" +whispered Jot eagerly. He drew Kent up beside him and they peeped +carefully over. Kent dropped back, as Jot had done, in sheer surprise. +The two boys gazed at each other silently. It was too much for Kent, +though, and, to suppress a laugh, he stuffed his handkerchief in his +mouth. + +Kent pointed to Old Tilly and smiled broadly. + +"He promised mother he'd take us to meeting," he whispered, "and he's +done it!" + +"Yes, but she wouldn't like to see him asleep in church!" Jot whispered +hack. + +Below them the minister's deep voice tolled on solemnly. They could not +catch all the words. + +"Come on! I'm going to sit up like folks. I want to hear what he's +saying," Jot whispered after awhile. + +They smoothed their hair and tried to straighten collars and ties, and +then suddenly some of the people down below in the body of the church +glanced up and saw two boyish faces, side by side, in the gallery. The +puzzle was beyond unraveling. The women prodded each other gently with +their parasol tips and raised their eyebrows. The men looked blank. +When had those youngsters got up there in that pew? One of the deacons +scowled a little, but the two quiet brown faces allayed his suspicions. +It wasn't mischief--it was mystery. + +The sight that had met Jot's astonished eyes in the beginning was a +quaint one. This was a new kind of a church! At home there were rows +upon rows of red-cushioned seats, with the hymn books and fans in the +racks making the only break to the monotony. Here the pews were all +little square rooms with high partitions and doors. The hard board +seats ran 'way round them all, so that in some of them people were +sitting directly "back to" the minister! Rows on rows of the little +rooms, like cells, jutted against each other and filled up the entire +space below save the aisles and the pulpit. + +[Illustration: This was a new kind of church.] + +And the pulpit! Jot's eyes returned to it constantly in wondering +admiration. There was a steep flight of stairs leading up to it on each +side, and an enormous umbrella-like sounding-board was poised heavily +above it. The pulpit itself was round and tail and hung above the heads +of the congregation, making the practice of looking up at the good old +minister a neck-aching process. Directly beneath the pulpit was a seat +facing the people. It was empty now, but a hundred years ago, had the +lads but known it, the deacons had sat there and the "tithing-man," +whose duty it was to go about waking up the dozers with his long wand. +It was called the Deacon's Seat, and if sometimes the deacons themselves +had dropped off into peaceful naps--what then? Did the "tithing-man" +nudge them sharply with his stick, or was he dozing, too? + +There are still a few of these old landmarks left in the country. Now +and then we run across them and get a distinct flavor of old times, and +it is worth going a good many miles to see the inside of one of them. +By just shutting one's eyes and "making believe" a little, how easy it +would be to conjure up our dear old grandmothers in their great scoop +bonnets, and grandfathers with their high coat collars coming nearly to +their bald crowns! And the Deacon's Seat under the pulpit--how easy to +make believe the deacons in claw-hammer coats and queer frilled shirt +bosoms! + +The people Jot and Kent saw were ordinary, modern people, and their +modern clothes looked oddly out of date against the quaint old setting. +Jot thought with a twinge of sympathy how hard the seats must feel, and +how shoulders must ache against the perfectly straight-up-and-down +backs. He felt a sudden pity for his great-grandmother and great-uncles +and aunts. + +This especial old church, box-like and unchurchly without and ancient +within, was rarely used for worship except in the summer months. Then +there were services in it as often as a minister could be found to +conduct them. The three young adventurers had stumbled upon it in the +dark and overslept out of sheer physical weariness. It was up in one of +the old choir pews in the high gallery they had wakened--or Jot had +wakened--to the strains of the beautiful hymn his mother loved. + +The whole explanation was simple enough when it was explained. Kent and +Jot worked it out slowly in their own minds. + +Meanwhile Old Tilly slept on, and the sermon came to an end. There was +another hymn and then the benediction. The people dispersed slowly, and +once more the big house was deserted. + +Then Jot woke Old Tilly. "I say," he cried, "I say, old fellow, wake +up!" + +"Yes, I'm coming in a minute!" muttered Old Tilly. + +"You'll be late for church," remarked Kent dryly, with a wink at Jot. + +Old Tilly stirred and rose on his elbow. Then he gave a bewildered look +around him. + +"You're in church. Didn't you promise mother you'd take us to church?" + +"Yes." + +"But you slept all through the service," said Kent, "and I shall tell +mother so!" + +"Kent Eddy, what are you trying to get at? How did we get here, +anyhow?" said Old Tilly, rising cautiously; and then, as he looked down +on the empty room below, standing to his full height, he said. "Well, if +I ever!" a laugh breaking through his white teeth. "I should say we had +been in church!" he added. "Why didn't you fellows wake me up? What +did the folks think?" + +"Oh, they only saw the two good boys sitting on the seat facing them! +We didn't say we had another one smuggled in under beside us. But my! +You did rap the seat awfully once with your elbow!" + +"Well, I know one thing: my shoulder aches from lying on that narrow +seat so long," said Old Tilly. "I say, let's go down to the wheels and +the grub. I'm half starved!" + +"All right," said Kent in rather a subdued way. The morning service had +stolen pleasingly through him, and somehow it seemed to the little lad +as though their ship had been guided into a wonderfully quiet harbor. +And now he followed his brothers down the narrow stairs that they had so +innocently groped their way up in darkness the night before. The three +had agreed to leave the church and partake of the lunch that was in the +baskets on the wheels, but now they found doing so not as easy of +accomplishment as they had at first thought. When they tried the outer +door they found to their dismay that it was locked. Old Tilly would not +believe Kent, and he pushed the latter's hand off the door knob rather +impatiently. "Let me get hold of it!" + +But, rattle the door as he might, he could not stir the rusty lock. + +"Well, we're locked in, that's sure!" said Kent, looking almost +dismayed. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +"I guess you're right, Jotham," Old Tilly said. + +"But what in the world did they go and lock up for, when we got in just +as easy as pie last night?" exclaimed Kent, disgustedly. + +"Oh, ask something easy!" Jot cried. "What I want to know is, how we're +going to get on the other side o' that door." + +The care-taker, if one could call him that, of the old meeting-house, +had taken it into his head to take care of it!--or it may have been that +the key chanced to be in his pocket, convenient. At all events, the +door was securely fastened. The three boys reluctantly gave up the +attempt to force it. + +"Windows!" Kent suddenly exclaimed, and they all laughed foolishly. +They had not thought of the windows. + +"That's a good joke on the Eddy boys!" Old Tilly said. "We sha'n't hear +the last of it if anybody lets on to father." + +"Better wait till we're on the other side of the windows!" advised Kent. +"Maybe it isn't a joke." + +There were windows enough. They were ranged in monotonous rows on all +sides of the church, above and below. They all had tiny old-fashioned +panes of glass and were fastened with wooden buttons. It was the work +of a minute to "unbutton" one of them and jump out. + +"There!" breathed Jot in relief, as his toes touched sod again, "I feel +as if I'd been in prison and just got out." + +"Broken out--that's the way I feel. I wish we could fasten the window +again," Old Tilly said thoughtfully. + +Kent was rubbing his ankle ruefully. + +"It was a joke on us, our mooning round that door all that time, and +thinking we were trapped!" + +"Oh, well, come on; it doesn't matter, now we're free again." + +"Come along--here are our wheels all right," Old Tilly said briskly. +"Let's go down to that little bunch of white houses there under the +hill, and pick out the one we want to stay over night in." + +"The one that wants us to stay in it, you mean! Come on, then." + +It was already mid-afternoon. The beautiful Sunday peace that broods +over New England's country places rested softly on new-mown fields and +bits of pasture and woods. The boys' hearts were made tender by the +service they had so unexpectedly attended, and as the beauty of the +scene recalled again the home fields, they fell into silence. A tiny, +brown-coated bird tilted on a twig and sang to them as they passed. The +little throat throbbed and pulsated with eager melody. + +Old Tilly listened to the song to its close, then swung round suddenly. +His face was like father's when he got up from his knees at family +prayers. + +"That bird seems singing, 'Holy, holy, holy,'" Old Tilly said softly. +"Can't you hear?" + +"Yes, I hear," murmured Jot. + +The little white house they picked out sat back from the highway in a +nest of lilac bushes. It reminded the boys a very little of home. + +"Stop over night? Away from home, be ye? Why, yes, I guess me an' pa +can take you in. One, two--dear land! there's three of ye, ain't there? +Yes, yes, come right in! I couldn't turn three boys away--not three!" + +The sweet-faced old woman in the doorway held out both hands +welcomingly. She seemed to get at the history of the three young +knights by some instinctive mind-reading of her own--the boys themselves +said so little. It was the little old lady's sweet voice that ran on +without periods, piecing Old Tilly's brief explanatory words together +skillfully. + +"Havin' a holiday, be you? I see. Well, young folks has to have their +outin's. When they git as old as me an' pa, they'll be all innin's!" +she ran on. Suddenly she stooped and surveyed them with a placid +attempt at sternness. "I hope you've all be'n to meetin'?" she cried. + +Jot's face twisted oddly. + +"Yes," Old Tilly answered, subduedly, "we've been to church." + +"I thought so--I thought so. Now come in an' see pa--poor pa' He was +took again yesterday. He's frettin' dretfully about the hay. Pa--" + +Her voice went on ahead and heralded their coming. "Here's three boys +come to stop over night with us--three, pa. You're glad there's three +of 'em, ain't you? I knew you'd be. When I'd counted 'em up, I didn't +hesitate any longer! The littlest one looks a little mite like our Joey, +pa--only Joey was handsome," she added innocently. + +Kent nudged Jot delightedly. They were entering a quaint, old-fashioned +room, and at the further end on a hair-cloth settle lay a withered +morsel of an old man. His sun-browned face made a shriveled spot of +color against the pillows. + +"That's pa," the little old lady said, by way of introduction. "He was +took yesterday, out in the field. It was dretful hot--an' the hay 'most +in, too. He's frettin' because he couldn't 've waited a little mite +longer, ain't you, pa? I tell him if the boys was here--" She broke +off with a quiver in her thin, clear voice. Pa, on the couch, put out +his hand feebly and smoothed her skirt. + +"We had three boys--ma an' me," he explained quietly. "That's why ma was +so quick to take you in, I guess. They was all little shavers like you +be." + +"Yes, jest little shavers," said ma, softly. "They hadn't got where I +couldn't make over 'em an' tuck 'em in nights, when they was took away-- +all in one week. You wouldn't have thought 'twould have be'n all in one +week--three boys--would you? Not three! I tell pa the Lord didn't give +us time enough to bid 'em all good-by. It takes so long to give up +three!" + +Old Tilly and the others stood by in odd embarrassment. Jot was bothered +with a strange sensation in his throat. + +But the old lady's sorrowing face brightened presently. She bustled +about the room busily, getting out chairs and setting straight things +crooked in her zeal. + +"I guess you're hungry, ain't you? Boys always is--an' three boys! +Dear! how hungry three boys can be! I'm goin' out to get supper. Pa, +you must do the entertainin'." + +The bread was "just like mother's"--white with a delicious crust--and +the butter yellow as gold, and Jot helped himself plentifully. "Ma," +behind the tea urn, watched him with a beaming face. + +"That's right!--I love to see boys eat! I tell pa sometimes I can just +see our three boys settin' at this table eatin' one of ma's good meals +o' victuals. You must have some of this custard, Joey." A faint +essence of added tenderness crept into the wistful old voice at that +name. The boys knew that Joey had been the little old lady's baby. + +"Joey was a great hand for custard. Joey was a master hearty boy." + +After supper, the boys wandered out around the tiny farm. It was at best +a rocky, uneven place, but there were evidences of "pa's" hard work on +it. Most of the grass had been mowed and carried into the barn, but +there was one small field still dotted over with cocks of overripe hay. +Old Tilly strode over and examined it with an air of wisdom. + +"Too ripe," he commented. "I guess it won't be worth getting in, if it +stays out here much longer." + +"He meant to have it all in yesterday--she said he did. I mean that +little old lady said so," Jot remarked. + +"Well, if it isn't all in to-morrow, it's a goner," Old Tilly said +decisively. + +"Now, boys, there's lots o' good water out in the cistern," the old lady +said, when they came back. "I've put the towels handy in the shed. It +may be you'll sleep sounder if you have a nice sponge off." + +Only too glad, the boys took to the shed, and then followed their guide +to the airy room waiting. How the pillows fitted a fellow's head! as +Jot said luxuriously. And the beds, how good they felt after those hard +church pews! They were sound asleep in a moment. + +The little old lady stole in to look at them. She held the lamp high in +one hand and gazed down with wistful eyes into the three healthy brown +faces. When she went back to pa, her face was wet with a rain of tears. + +"They look so good, pa, lyin' there!" she said brokenly. "An' you'd +ought to see how much like Joey the littlest one throws up his arm!" + +The old man could not sleep. He kept asking if it looked like rain and +kept fretting because he could not move his legs about freely. + +"I've got to move 'em, ma," he groaned.-"I've got to practice before +to-morrer, so's to get the hay in. I've got to get the hay in, ma!" + +It was Jot, for a wonder, who slept the longest. He woke with a start +of surprise at his strange surroundings. Then he sat up in bed, blinking +his eyes open wider. The room was a large one with two beds in it. He +and Kent had slept in one, and Old Tilly in the other. It was just +before sunrise, and in the east a wide swathe of pink was banding the +sky. Outside the window, a crowd of little birds were tuning up for a +concert. + +Jot rubbed his eyes again. There was no one else in the room. The +other boys had vanished completely. He leaped out of bed with a queer +sense of fright. Then he made a discovery. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +"Come on--haying's begun," the note read. It was in Kent's angular, +boyish hand, and Jot found it pinned conspicuously to the looking-glass +frame. "Old Till and I are at it. Come on out." + +So that was it? They were getting in the poor little morsel of an old +man's hay. Jot jumped into his clothes with a leap and was out in the +hay-field with them. He was inclined to be cross at being left dozing +while the work began. + +"I call that shabby mean," he protested. "Why couldn't you wake a +fellow up? I guess I'd like a hand in helping the old man out, as well +as either of you." + +"Wake you up!" laughed Kent. "Didn't I tickle the soles of your feet? +Didn't I pinch you? What more do you want?" + +"You wouldn't wake up, Jot," Old Tilly said cheerfully. "I took a hand +at it myself, but nothing this side of a brass band would 've done it +this morning. We couldn't bring that in, you know, for fear of waking +the folks. So Kent wrote you a letter." + +The work went on splendidly. They were all in fine haying trim, and the +cocks in the rough little field were tossed briskly into the rack. +There were three loads, and the last one was safely stowed in the haymow +before the little old lady in the house had stirred up her breakfast +cake. + +[Illustration: They were all in fine haying trim.] + +"I hope she won't discover anything before we get away," Old Tilly said. +"It would be such fun to have it a reg'lar surprise!" + +"Wouldn't it!" cried Jot. + +"But she might think somebody'd come along in the night and stole it, +don't you see?" Kent objected. + +"No, sir, I don't see. I guess she'd see our trail. And besides, look +up there in the mow! It doesn't look just exactly as it did before we +began!" + +A few minutes after the boys had glided away on their wheels, the little +old lady hurried into "pa's" room. + +"Pa, pa, it's all in, jest as nice as a new pin! Every spear's in!" she +cried delightedly. "Them three boys did it before breakfast. I knew +what they was up to, but I wasn't goin' to spoil their little surprise! +I guess I know how boys like surprises. Don't you remember how Hilary +an' Eben got the potatoes all dug that time an' surprised you? How +innocent their little faces looked when you said, 'Hum-suz-a-day! how it +makes my back ache thinkin' o' those potatoes!' Joey was a tittle thing +in kilts, but he helped. He tugged 'em in, in his own little basket--I +can see jest how proud he looked! But I evened up a little on the +surprise. I guess when they come to open them bicycle baskets they'll +see some things in the way of apple-pie that was not there earlier!" + +All the morning the boys wondered at the stream of wagons traveling +their way. Then just at noon they found out what it meant. They came +round a sharp curve in the road upon a beautiful grove on the shore of a +lake. It was gay with flags and the bright dresses of women and +children. Here and there an awning or tent dotted the green spaces. +People were bustling about in all directions, laughing and shouting to +each other, and every few minutes there were new arrivals. + +"Hark! there's a band o' music! It's a circus!" cried Kent, excitedly. +Jot had disappeared somewhere in the crowd. + +"No-o, not a circus," Old Tilly said doubtfully. "It's some kind of a +big picnic. See, there's a kind of a track laid out over there where +that flag is. They're going to have some kind of athletics." + +"Foot-races and hurdles and things! Oh, I say, can't we stay and see +'em?" Kent cried eagerly. + +At that instant appeared Jot, waving his cap in great excitement. + +"Come on--we're invited!" he shouted. "There's going to be lots of fun, +I tell you! We can buy ice-cream, too, over in that striped tent, and +there are boats we can hire to row out in, and--everything." + +"Hold on a minute!" demanded Old Tilly with the sternness of authority. +"How did you get your invitation? and what is it that's going on, +anyway?" + +"Tell quick, Jot--hurry! They're getting ready for a foot-race," +fidgeted Kent. + +"It's a Grangers' picnic, that's what. And a big jolly Granger invited +us to stop to it. He asked if we weren't farmer boys, and said he +thought so by our cut when I said, yes sir-ee. He wants us to stop. He +said so. He says his folks have got bushels of truck for dinner, and we +can join in with them and welcome." + +"And thanking him kindly, I'll stop!" laughed Kent, in high feather. +"Come on over there, Jot, and see 'em race." And the three young +knights were presently in the midst of the gay crowd, as gay as anybody. + +The afternoon was full of fun for them. They made plenty of +acquaintances among the other brown-faced farmer boys, and entered into +the spirit of the occasion with the hearty zest of boys out holidaying. +They were a little careful about not being too free with their +spending-money. "'Cause we're out on a long run, you know," Old Tilly +said. But what they did spend went for their share of the entertainment +given so freely to them by the big Granger who had taken them in tow. +It was a day filled with a round of pleasure, as Jot had predicted. + +The athletic contests on the primitive little race-track proved the +greatest attraction of all. There were bicycle races after the +foot-racing and hammer-throwing and high jumping. Jot longed to vault +into his own wheel and whirl round the track dizzily, like the rest of +them. He and Kent stood together close to the turning-point. They had +somehow drifted away from Old Tilly. + +A new race began, and up at the starting-place there seemed to be a good +deal of hilarity. The hearty laughs were tantalizing. + +"What is it? Why don't they come on and give us fellows a chance to +laugh, too?" exclaimed Jot, impatiently. + +Kent was peering sharply between his hands. He suddenly began to laugh. + +"It's a slow race!" he cried. "They're trying to see who can get +behind! Come on up further where we can see. It'll be great!" + +"Come along, then--hurry!" shouted Jot. + +"It's a free-for-all. Anybody can compete," somebody was saying as they +passed. "But they've got to be slower than Old Tilly!" + +"Can't do it!" whispered Jot. "Old Tilly can sit still on his bike." + +"I hope he'll see the race," Kent panted. "It would be mean if he +missed. Here's a good place--there they come. Look at 'em crawling +along like snails! There's one chap clear behind. Yes, sir, he's +standing still!" + +Jot gave one look and uttered a shout: + +"It's Old Tilly!" + +"Jotham Eddy--no!" + +"Look for yourself and see--ain't it?" + +"Of course--no--yes, sir, it's Old Till, for a fact." + +"And he's 'way behind--I told you there wasn't anybody slower'n Old +Tilly! He's beating as fast as anything." + +"As slow as anything. Come on! Let's cheer him, Jot." + +They caught off their caps and cheered wildly. Every-body else joined +in, catching at the name and laughing over it as a good joke. + +"Hurrah--hurrah for Old Tilly!" + +"Hip, hip, 'n' a tiger for Old Til-ly!" + +The time-keeper called time, and Old Tilly descended from his victorious +wheel and bowed profoundly to his cheerers. He walked away to join the +other boys with the exaggerated air of a great victor, and the people +shouted again. + +"Oh, I say, that was rich, Old Till," gasped Jot. "That was worth a +farm!" + +"What made you think of entering?" Kent laughed. + +"Oh, I thought I would--I knew I could beat 'em," Old Tilly said +modestly. + +Sunset ended the festivities in the grove, and the boys mounted and rode +away with the other tired people. Gradually they fell behind. + +"Don't--rush--so; I've got to keep up my reputation!" said Old Tilly. +"Besides, I'm tired." + +"Me, too." + +"Same here. Let's camp out to-night in the woods. Why didn't we stay +there and camp in that grove?" + +"Well, we might have, but we won't go back," answered Old Tilly. "Come +on, let's make for that pretty little brown house. Maybe we can buy our +supper there." + +But the little brown house was shut up tight. The curtains were all +pulled down, and a general air of "not at home" pervaded even the +clapboards and the morning-glory vine over the door. Only the neat +little barn looked hospitable. Its doors stood open wide. A distant +rumble of thunder suddenly sounded, and the sky darkened with ominous +swiftness. + +"Going to rain," Kent said. + +"Sure," added Jot. "Look at those clouds, will you? We'd better get +into a hole somewhere." + +"We'll go into the barn," decided Old Tilly, after a minute's thought, +"and if it rains all night, we'll stay there. We can't do any harm." + +It rained all night. Shower after shower burst over them heavily, and +there was a continual boom of thunder in their ears. A slight respite +at midnight was followed by the most terrific shower of all. The boys +huddled together in the hay, with awe-struck faces, but unafraid. They +could not sleep in such a magnificent tumult of nature. + +Suddenly there was a blinding flash of lightning, then a crash. The +whole universe seemed tottering about them. Dizzy and stunned, they +gazed at each other, unable to move for an instant. Then it was Jot who +sprang up in tremulous haste. + +"I smell smoke--we're afire!" he exclaimed. + +"Yes," Old Tilly cried, striving to be calm, "it struck this barn." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +They darted away in search of the fire. The glare of the lightning +showed them their way, and presently they came into the glare of the +flames. The bolt had descended through the harness room. + +"Quick! Cattle first!" shouted Old Tilly, clearly. "We must save the +cattle, anyway!" + +"You go to them, you two--I'm going to the pump," called back Kent, +decisively. He remembered there was a pump just outside the barn, and +he was sure he had seen two or three pails standing about near it--yes, +there they were! He caught them up with a sweep as he leaped by. It was +the work of a moment to fill two pails and a moment more to dash them +down by the floor in one corner where the scattered hay was burning. +Again and again he made flying leaps to the pump and back. + +Meanwhile the other two boys were releasing the frantic cattle. It was +no simple thing to do--the poor creatures were so terrified. There were +two steers and a gentle-faced heifer. The boys had made acquaintance +with them the night before, and the poor things greeted them now with +piteous lows of appeal. + +"So, boss--so boss--so-o!" soothed Jot at the heifer's head. His +trembling fingers caressed the smooth, fawn-colored nose, as, with the +other hand, he untied her. She crouched back at first and refused to +pass that terrible flaming something on the way to safety outside. But +Jot pulled her along, talking to her all the way. + +In less time than it takes to tell of it, the cattle were out of danger. + +"Now the hens--hurry, hurry, Jot! I'm going to help Kent. It mustn't +get to the hay upstairs!" + +Thanks to Kent's steady, tireless work, there was little danger of that +now. Already the flames were greatly subdued, and only sputtered +aimlessly under the regular showers of water that fell upon them. The +two boys toiled over them patiently till just a blackened corner told +that they had been there in the trig little barn. + +It had been a short, sharp battle. A moment's indecision, a very little +less determined effort and presence of mind, and nothing but a miracle +could have saved the barn. And then the house! It stood so near--what +could have saved it? + +It was an hour or more before Old Tilly would allow the live stock +brought back into the barn. They hovered anxiously over the blackened +embers, for fear they might spring into life again. But at last there +seemed no danger, and presently the building settled back to quiet +again, and the tired rescuers tried to snatch a little sleep in the hay. +Jot woke the others in the first dim daylight. + +"Fire! Fire!" he screamed. + +"Where? Where is it?" cried Kent, springing to his feet. + +"Put--it--o-ut," mumbled Old Tilly. + +It was only a nightmare, but the boys could not doze again after it. + +It was just as the sun was rising clear and beautiful that the boys came +out from the barn, and as they caught sight of each other's blackened +faces in the dazzling light, they each gave way to a roar of laughter. +"Well, we all seem to be in the same boat," said Kent, making for the +pump and filling the pails one after the other. "Here's a pail apiece; +that ought to do it for us." Then he went to one of the wheel baskets +and brought back a crash towel and a generous piece of soap. "Now lay +to on yourselves, boys, and then we will see what we can scare up for +breakfast. I suppose there's no getting into the house, so we'll have +to depend on ourselves." But here Kent noticed how particularly quiet +Old Tilly was. + +"What's up, lad?" he said, as he plunged his face down into one of the +dripping pails, and then after scrubbing and sputtering for a while he +reached out blindly for a, towel, which one of the others tossed into +his hands. When his eyes were free, he drew a long breath, saying, +"Water fixes a fellow all right." But as he did this he noticed +something that made him exclaim sharply. It was the sight of Old Tilly +washing himself with one hand, while around the wrist of the other a +grimy handkerchief was bound. "Why didn't you say you were hurt?" he +said, coming over to Old Tilly's side. "What is it, anyway?" + +"Oh, it's nothing," said Old Tilly, with an impatient nod of his head. +"Maybe it's where the lightning ran down," he said, with a laugh. + +"Lightning!--not much! Come, out with it. What is it?" + +"Oh, it's just a tear on an old nail. One of those steers got a little +ugly, and I jumped back too suddenly. It's nothing." + +"We'll have to take your word for it," said Kent. But he very soberly +turned to the lunch baskets. It was just as they had packed up +everything neatly and were mounting their wheels to ride away, that a +wagon came rumbling down the grassy road and turned in to the farmyard. +A young man with a limp felt hat was on the seat with a woman wearing a +brown straw hat, while a tiny girl in a pink sunbonnet was nestled down +between them. + +"Halloo!" said the man, as he saw the boys. "Just leavin'?" + +"Yes, sir," said Old Tilly, respectfully. "We took the liberty of +sleeping in your barn last night. You see the storm kept us there all +night." + +"Well, the storm kept us, too," said the young farmer, reaching for the +little child and setting her down by the pump, and then helping the +woman to alight. + +The young woman gave a relieved look around, first at the barn and then +at the house, and said delightedly: + +"Oh, Jim, how good it does seem to see everything safe! I can't believe +my eyes hardly." And she added, turning to the boys with a slightly +embarrassed laugh, "I never was very good to stay away from home nights, +and we didn't mean to stay last night, but the rain kept us. It just +seemed to me that with every clap of thunder we'd find everything burned +to ashes, and the whole place gone." + +Tears came into her eyes, as she turned and gave her hand to the little +child. "Well, I'm going in to get breakfast," she said, a glad, +tremulous light showing across her face. "You better bring these boys in +to breakfast, Jim. If they've just slept in the barn they must be +hungry." Then turning back again with a heartier laugh, "I feel that +glad to see everything, even to the chickens, just as we left them, that +I wouldn't object to asking the President of the United States to +breakfast. You ain't from around here, are you?" she asked, looking at +the boys. "I thought not. And you're hungry, I'll wager," she said, as +she bustled away with the little girl tugging at her skirts, not waiting +for the boys to disaffirm, as they most assuredly would have done had a +chance been given them, for they were not in the least hungry. But +then, what was a cold luncheon taken from a bicycle basket compared with +a warm breakfast that might include ham and eggs? + +"She's awfully nervous, Nancy is," said the young farmer, a trifle +apologetically; "she would have it at brother Ed's that she was being +burned out of house and home. We oughtn't to have stayed, but brother +Ed urged us to go home with him. She's always that way when she's away. +We've ridden nineteen miles since daybreak, and she believed every mile +that we were going to see a burned-down house at the end." + +"Well," said Old Tilly in a quiet way, so as not to alarm the young +farmer, "I guess she was about right this time. If we hadn't happened +here--" Then he slipped back into the barn, and the young farmer +followed after, and Old Tilly pointed to the blackened corner, while the +other two drew near interestedly. + +"You see how it struck," Old Tilly said quietly, "but we put it out +after a while. It is well we happened to be right here." + +The young farmer was gazing at the burned place, with his jaw dropped +and a look of terror coming into his blue eyes. + +"It did strike! I should say it did!" he cried excitedly. "What will +Nancy say?" + +[Illustration: "I should say it did strike!" he cried, excitedly.] + +Then as a realization came to him that it was owing to the boys that +they had a roof over their heads, he turned first to one lad and then to +the other, and shook their hands heartily. There were tears in his +eyes, but he did not seem conscious of them. "I don't know what Nancy +'ll say," he reiterated, as he shook one hand after the other up and +down like a pump handle. "We'll have to be everlastingly obliged to you +for the rest of our days," he said, trying to laugh a little. But his +voice choked, and he turned away to hide his emotion. Then he dropped +down upon a corn-cutter and insisted on hearing the story from beginning +to end, although Old Tilly declared time and again, with the other two +joining in, that "It was nothing." + +"You call it nothing? Well, you wait until you've worked half a +lifetime, as Nancy and me have done, to get a place, and then see what +you think about it. I guess Nancy 'll believe it's something." + +Then he stopped as a clear call, "Breakfast! Breakfast!" came ringing +out to them from the open door beyond the pump. "Perhaps we'd better not +say anything about it until after breakfast. She's had a powerful +uneasy night, and it's been a good bit of a ride over, too." + +To this the boys assented, and the four walked across the yard to the +kitchen door, where the little girl was shyly waiting for them. + +"Ain't you the young chap that beat in the bicycle slow race?" asked +Nancy, when she caught a sight of Tilly's face as he removed his hat. + +The other two boys laughed, and the farmer, looking squarely at his +visitor, said: + +"Well, I thought I'd seen you somewhere." + +And then they settled down to breakfast in the happiest frame of mind, +evidently, that could be imagined. But all the time Old Tilly kept one +hand down at his side, a little out of sight, and the boys noticed that +he took upon his plate only such things as he could very easily manage +with one hand. The breakfast, for a hurried one, was very satisfactory +indeed. Jot and Kent ate with full appreciation of it. + +But had they watched closely, they would have seen how Old Tilly's face +now flushed and then grew pale, and that occasionally he brought his +lips together as though striving to control himself. + +But, all unmindful of what the boy was undergoing, Nancy presided +merrily over the table, and kept prompting Jim to fill up the plates as +they needed it, and pressed this and that upon the boys' attention. + +"I don't feel as if I should ever want to go away again," she cried. +"It's so good to be at home. I've been through every room in the house +and taken a view of them all." And then she said laughingly, turning to +the boys, "Not that there are so very many of 'em, but they're all we've +got, you know. After breakfast we're going out to the barn, ain't we, +Polly?" she added. + +But now Kent noticed that Jot's face had suddenly sobered; he was +looking at Old Tilly anxiously; he had seen. His hand come up from +beneath the table, and he was sure that the handkerchief was spotted +with red. "I say--Old Tilly--" Jot got to his feet hastily. + +But Old Tilly's face was white, and he was swaying from side to side. +Old Tilly was fainting away. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"I--I'm awake now. What's the matter? Who's sick?" + +Old Tilly sat up dizzily. He had lost consciousness only for a moment, +but his face seemed to be growing whiter and whiter. Jot and Kent +hovered over him anxiously. + +"You got kind of faint, Old Till--just for a minute. You're all right +now," Kent said. + +"Of course I'm all right!--I always was! I don't see what you're making +such a fuss about!" But the pale face belied his words. + +Kent lifted the clumsily bandaged hand and unwound the handkerchief. It +was stained with blood. + +"Oh, what have you done, Kent! You shouldn't have taken the bandage +off!" exclaimed Jot, in fright. "See how the blood is dripping from the +cloth!" + +"It's nothing, I tell you!" growled Old Tilly. "Wind the thing up again! +It's only a nail tear!" + +Old Tilly was swaying again, and they forced him gently back. The +little woman looked up startled. + +"What is it, Jim? How did it happen?" she quavered. + +Jim's face looked very sober. "I guess I better fetch the doctor," he +said. "He hurt it on a nail, he says. I won't stop to harness up--Old +Betty's used to bein' rode bareback." + +He hurried away, followed by his wife. Jot was examining the torn wrist +tenderly. Some new, untried strength seemed to spring into the brown, +boyish face. It took on the lines of a man's. + +"It's an artery, Kentie. I know, because the blood leaps up so when the +handkerchief is off. It can't have been bleeding all night. I don't +understand." + +"It bled some last night," said Old Tilly, "but I stopped it. I guess I +hit it someway just now against the table. It began again worse than +ever. Cover it up, can't you? It's--all--right!" + +"It isn't all right! Get me a little stick, quick, Kentie! No, that +fork'll do. Hand it here. This bleeding's got to stop." + +It seemed odd that it should be Jot--little, wild, scatter-brained Jot-- +who should take the lead in that calm, determined way. What had come to +the boy? With pale face and set teeth he quietly bound the handkerchief +tightly above the wrist, and, inserting the fork handle in the knot, +twisted it about. The bleeding lessened--stopped. + +"There! Now, if I keep a good grip on it--oh, I say, Kentie, wasn't I +afraid I couldn't work it!" he said, breathing hard. + +"I don't see how you did work it! I don't see how you ever thought of +it, Jot Eddy!" + +"Well, I did. I read how it was done, up in the consultery. Father may +laugh, but I'm going to be a doctor!" + +Kent's face was full of new-born respect. He suddenly remembered that +it was Jot who had set "Rover's broken leg and nursed the little sick +calf that father set such store by. + +"I guess father won't laugh." Kent said soberly. Jot was sitting on the +edge of the lounge holding the fork in a firm grasp. Old Tilly opened +his eyes and nodded approvingly. + +"That's what I tried to do myself with the handkerchief--bind it tight. +It wasn't very bad at first, but I jerked it or something. I didn't +want you fellows' good time spoiled." + +"That's just like you!" burst out Kent. "You never tell when you get +hurt, for fear other folks'll be bothered." + +The little woman crept back into the kitchen and went quietly about her +work. + +The doctor soon came, and in a brief time the artery was taken up and +the hand deftly bandaged. + +"Which of you fellows made that tourniquet with the fork?" the doctor +asked brusquely. + +Kent pointed proudly to Jot. + +"Oh, it was you, was it? Well, you did a mighty good thing for your +brother there. He'd have lost plenty of blood before I got here if you +hadn't." + +The whole of that day and the next night the boys remained at "Jim's." +The doctor had positively objected to Old Tilly's going on without a +day's quiet. + +And the little woman--the little woman would not hear of anything else +but their staying! She had been out to the barn with Jim and seen the +blackened corner. After that she hovered over the three boys like a hen +over her chickens. + +"For--to think, Jim!--it was saving our home he got hurt!" she cried. + +The boys talked things over together, and Kent and Jot were for turning +about and going straight home. But not so Old Tilly. + +"I guess! No, sir; we'll go right ahead and have our holiday out. It's +great fun cruising round like this!" + +"But your hand, Old Tilly--the doctor said--" + +"To keep it quiet. He didn't say to sit down in a rocking-chair and +sing it to sleep. I guess if I can't ride a wheel with one hand, my +name isn't Nathan Eddy!" + +"It isn't'" laughed Kent. "It's Old Tilly Eddy!" + +But in the middle of the night a ghost appeared suddenly over Old Tilly. +The pale moonlight introduced it timidly as Jot, in his white shirt. He +sat down on the bed. + +"I'm going home," he announced in a whisper. "You other fellows can do +as you like. Of course you can ride all right with one hand, if you're +bound to. But I sha'n't ride with three hands any further from home! +I'm going home! I--I feel as if I must!" + +Old Tilly sat up in bed. "You sick, Jotham Eddy?" he cried. + +"No--o, not sick--not reg'lar built! But I tell you I'm going home. +It's no use saying anything--I've said it." "I believe you're sick; +you're keeping something back, Jot." + +"Well, what if I am? Didn't you keep something back yourself, till you +fainted away doing it? I'm going--you and Kentie needn't, of course. I +tell you I feel as if I must." + +"He's sick, Kentie," Old Tilly said next morning. "There's something the +matter with him, sure, or he wouldn't be so set. Don't you think he +LOOKS kind of pale-ish?" + +"Pale-ish!" scoffed Kent. + +"Well, something's up. Mother put him in my care, and I'm going to take +him home. I'd never forgive myself, and mother'd never forgive me, if +anything happened to Jot away from home. I'm sorry on your account, +Kentie." + +"Oh, go ahead! I'm all right," rejoined Kent, cheerfully. "I'd just as +soon. We've had a jolly good time of it so far, and we can take the +rest of it out in going fishing or camping at home." + +"Well, then we'll go right back home--on Jot's account. I feet as if I +must take him to mother." + +Poor Jot! It was hard to be taken home that way, when all the while +wasn't he taking wounded Old Tilly home to mother? It was the only way +he had been able to work it out, lying awake and worrying over the torn +wrist. Something must be done to get Old Tilly home. + +"I told the truth--I said I was keeping something back," thought Jot. +"I said I wasn't sick, didn't I? And Old Till's got to go home. The +doctor told me the sooner the better." + +But it was a distinct sacrifice to Jot's pride to be "taken home to +mother." He bore it remarkably well because of the love and anxiety in +his sturdy little heart. He would do a good deal for Old Till. + +They returned by a more direct route than they had come. On the way, +they discussed their adventures. Jot counted them up on his fingers. + +"Hand-organs, old churches, little old man's hay--pshaw! that wasn't an +adventure!" Jot blushed hotly, as if caught in some misdeed. + +"No, skip that," Old Tilly said quietly. "That just happened. Begin +over again." + +"Hand-organs, old churches (two adventures there, you know), picnics, +slow races--" + +"Skip that!" cried Old Tilly. + +"No, sir! Slow races, burning barns, arteries--" "Oh, I say! I'll do +the counting up myself! Besides, you left out the very first adventure, +didn't you?" + +"The very first one?" + +"Yes, of course--losing all our money before we started!" + +"Quits!" cried Jot, laughing. He did not appear sick at all. All the +way home he watched Old Tilly with almost professional care. And Old +Tilly, unknown to Jot, watched him. + +"Say, Jot," he said that night, when they had gone upstairs to their own +beds once more, "don't you feel a little better?" His face was white +and tired, and he nestled in the pillows gratefully. It was good to be +at home. "Don't you feel a good deal better?" + +"Me?" asked innocent Jot. "I feel jolly! Never felt--oh, er--I mean-- +that is--" + +"You're a rascal!" laughed Old Tilly, comfortably. "That's what you +mean. Think I didn't surmise a thing or two? Well, honest, I didn't, +at first. But on the way home I found out what you were up to. You +looked altogether too healthy!" + +There was a moment's silence, then Jot spoke meekly. "I felt sort of +mean, but I couldn't help it, honest. And I told the truth, now, didn't +I? I was going to own up to-morrow." + +He went away into the next room and crept into bed beside Kent. + +"Jot! Jot, I say!" called Old Tilly, presently. "Hope you don't think +I'm mad. I don't mind. I--I like it." + +There was an indistinct mumble of relief from Jot's quarter, followed by +another silence. Then again Old Tilly's contented voice crept through +the dark. + +"Say, Jot, you asleep?" + +"Yes, you?" + +"Sound! It feels mighty good to be home, doesn't it?" + +"Prime!" + +"Good-night, old chap!" + +"Same here!" + +Then silence, unbroken. By and by Mother Eddy stole upstairs to her +boys. + +"Good boys, every one of them. God bless them!" she murmured. "Home +isn't home without them. But young things must have their holidaying. +And I guess from what they tell, they've made good use of theirs. And +it isn't everyone does that; some of them just waste it. But this one's +held something in it. I don't know just what. But every one of them +seems--well, sort o' more manly-like. I'm glad their pa let them go. +But home ain't home without boys in it. That's sure." + +And she turned and went softly down the stairs. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Three Young Knights, by Annie Hamilton Donnell + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10901 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6747af --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #10901 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10901) diff --git a/old/10901.txt b/old/10901.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8c8e93 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10901.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2187 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Three Young Knights, by Annie Hamilton Donnell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Three Young Knights + +Author: Annie Hamilton Donnell + +Release Date: February 1, 2004 [EBook #10901] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE YOUNG KNIGHTS *** + + + + +Produced by Prepared by Al Haines. + + + + +THREE YOUNG KNIGHTS + +By Annie Hamilton Donnell + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +The last wisp of hay was in the Eddy mows. "Come on!" shouted Jot. +"Here she goes--hip, hip, hoo-ray!" + +"Hoor-a-ay!" echoed Kent. But of course Old Tilly took it calmly. He +planted his brown hands pocket-deep and his bare, brown legs wide apart, +and surveyed the splendid, bursting mows with honest pride. + +"Yes, sir, that's the finest lot o' hay in Hexham county; beat it if you +can, sir!" he said approvingly. Then, being ready, he caught off his +own hat and cheered, too. + +"Hold on, you chaps; give the old man a chance to holler with you!" +Father Eddy's big, hearty voice cried above the din, and there was the +flaring, sun-browned "wide-awake" swinging with the other hats. + +"Hooray for the best hay in town! Hooray for the smartest team o' boys! +Hooray for lib-er-tee!" + +"Hooray! Hooray!" + +They were all of them out of breath and red in the face, but how they +cheered! Liberty--that was something to cheer for! After planting-time +and haying, hurrah for liberty! + +The din softened gradually. With a sweep of his arm, father gathered +all the boys in a laughing heap before him. + +"Well," he said, "what next? Who's going to celebrate? I'm done with +you for a fortnight. I'm going to hire Esau Whalley to milk and do the +chores, and send you small chaps about your business. You've earned +your holiday. And I don't know but it's as good a time as any to settle +up. Pay day's as good one day as another." + +He drew out a little tight roll of bills and sorted out three +five-dollar notes gravely. The boys' eyes began to shine. Father 'most +always paid them, after haying, but--five dollars apiece! Old Tilly +pursed his lips and whistled softly. Kent nudged Jot. + +[Illustration: He sorted out three five-dollar notes gravely.] + +"There you are! You needn't mind about giving receipts!" Father Eddy +said matter-of-factly, but his gray eyes were a-twinkle under their +cliffs of gray brows. He was exulting quietly in the delight he could +read in the three round, brown faces. Good boys--yes, sir--all of them! +Wasn't their beat in Hexham county--no, sir! Nor yet in Marylebone +county or Winnipeg! + +"Now, on with you--scatter!" he laughed. "Mother and I are going to +mill to celebrate! When you've decided what you're going to do, send a +committee o' three to let us know. Mind, you can celebrate any way you +want to that's sensible." + +The boys waited till the tall, stoop-shouldered figure had gone back +into the dim, hay-scented barn, then with one accord the din began +again. + +"Hoo-ray! Hoo-ray for father!" + +"Father! father! hoo-ray!" + +"Hoor-a-ay!" + +It died away, began again, then trailed out to a faint wail as the boys +scuttled off round the barn to the orchard. Father smiled to himself +unsteadily. + +"Good boys! good boys! good boys!" he muttered. + +"Come on up in the consultery!" cried Kent excitedly. + +"Yes, come on, Old Till; that's the place!" Jot echoed. + +The "consultery" was a platform up in the great horse-chestnut tree. +When there was time, it could be reached comfortably by a short ladder, +but, in times of hurry, it was the custom to swing up to it by a +low-hanging bough, with a long running jump as a starter. To-day +they all swung up. + +"Oh, I say, won't there be times!" cried Kent. "Five apiece is fifteen, +lumped. You can celebrate like everything with fifteen dollars!" + +"Sure--but how?" Old Tilly asked in his gentle, moderate way. "We don't +want any old, common celebration!" + +"You better believe we don't!" + +"No, sir, we want to do something new! Camping out's old!" + +"Camping's no good! Go on!" Jot said briefly. It was always Old Tilly +they looked to for suggestions. If you waited long enough, they were +sure to come. + +"Well, that's the trouble. I can't 'go on'--yet. You don't give a chap +time to wink! What we want is to settle right down to it and think out +a fine way to celebrate. It's got to take time." + +For the space of a minute it was still in the consultery, save for the +soft swish of the leaves overhead and roundabout. Then Jot broke out--a +minute was Jot's utmost limit of silence. + +"We could go up through the Notch and back, you know," he reflected. +"That's no end of fun. Wouldn't cost us all more'n a fiver for the +round trip, and we'd have the other ten to--to--" + +"Buy popcorn and 'Twin Mountain Views' with!" finished Kent in scorn. +"Well, if you want to dress up in your best fixin's and stew all day in +a railroad train--" + +"I don't!" rejoined Jot, hastily. "I was thinking of Old Till!" + +Tilly's other name was Nathan, but it had grown musty with disuse. He +was the oldest of the Eddy trio, and "ballasted" the other two, Father +Eddy said. Old Tilly was fourteen and the Eddy twins--Jotham and +Kennet--were twelve. All three were well-grown, lusty fellows who could +work or celebrate their liberty, as the case might be, with a good will. +Just now it was the latter they wanted to do, in some untried way. + +It was a beautiful thinking-place, up in the consultery. The birds in +the meshes of leaves that roofed it over twittered in whispers, as if +they realized that a momentous question was under consultation down +below and bird-courtesy demanded quiet. + +Jot fretted impatiently under his breath, + +"Shouldn't think it need to take all day!" he muttered. "You're as slow +as--as--" + +"Old Tilly!" laughed Kent. The spell of silence was broken, and the +birds overhead broke into jubilant trills, as if they were laughing, +too. + +"I guess the name fits all right this time," Old Tilly said ruefully. +"I can't seem to think of anything at all! My head clicks--the mowing +machine wheels have got into it, I guess!" + +"Wheels in mine, too!" Kent drawled lazily. + +"Wheels!" + +Jot sprang to his feet in excitement. In his haste he miscalculated the +dimensions of the consultery. There was a wild flutter of brown hands +and feet, and then the chestnut leaves closed calmly over the opening, +and there were but two boys in the consultery. One of those parted the +leaves again and peered down. + +"Hello, Jot!" + +No answer. Old Tilly's laugh froze on his face. + +"Jot! Hello!" he cried, preparing to swing himself down. + +"Hello yourself!" came up calmly. + +"Oh! Are you killed?" + +"'Course! But, I say, you needn't either o' you sit up there any longer +gloomin'. I've thought of the way we'll celebrate. It's great!" + +The crisp branches creaked as the others swung down to the ground in +haste. + +"You haven't!" cried Kent. + +"What is it, quick!" Old Tilly said. Old Tilly in a hurry! + +"Wheels!" announced Jot, deliberately. "You chaps had 'em in your head, +and that put 'em into mine. Yes, sir, we'll celebrate on wheels!" + +"Why, of course! Good for you!" shouted Kent. But Old Tilly weighed +things first in his mind. + +"That would be a go if we had enough to 'go' round. But you twinnies +wouid have to ride double, or spell each other, or something." + +"Spell nobody!" scornfully cried Jot. + +"N-o, no, b-o-d--" + +"Shut up, Kent! That's all right, Old Till. Benny Tweed'll lend me his +bike just like a book--I know Ben! Besides, he owes me a dollar and I'll +call it square. There!" + +Old Tilly nodded approvingly. "Good!" he said. "Then we'll take a trip +off somewhere. That what you meant?" + +"Sure! We'll go Columbus-ing--discovering things, you know." + +"Like those fellows--what's their names?--who did errands for people, +and had wonderful things happen to them while doing them!" put in Kent, +enthusiastically. + +"Errands? What in the world--knights? He means knight-errants!" +exclaimed Old Till, laughing. + +"That's a good one--'Did errands for folks!'" Jot mocked. + +"Well, what did they do then, Jotham Eddy?" + +"Why, they--er--they--they rode round on splendid horses, all armed-- +er--aaple-pie--and--" + +"Apple-pie--armed with apple-pie!" + +Old Tilly came briskly to the rescue. + +"Never mind the errands or the pie!" laughed he. "We'll be reg'lar +knights and hunt up distressed folks to relieve, and have reg'lar +adventures. It will be great--good for Jot! We won't decide where +we're going or anything--just keep a-going. We'll start to-morrow +morning at sunrise." + +"Hoo-ray for to-morrow morning!" + +"Hoo-ray for sunrise!" + +"Hoo-ray for Jot!" finished Kent, generously forgetting mockeries. + +The plan promised gloriously. When father and mother came home from the +mill they fell in with it heartily, and mother rolled up her sleeves at +once to make cakes to fill the boys' bundle racks. They would buy other +things as they went along--that would be part of the fun. + +In the middle of the night Jot got out of bed softly and padded his way +across to the bureau, to feel of the three five-dollar bills they had +left together under the pincushion for a paper weight. He slid his +fingers under carefully. What! He lifted the cushion. Then he struck +a match--two matches--three, in agitated succession. + +The money was gone! + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +Jot gasped with horror. The last match went out and left him standing +there in the dark. After one instant's hesitation he made a bound for +the bed. "Kent! Kent! Wake up!" he whispered shrilly. He shook the +limp figure hard. + +"Thieves! Murder! Wake up, I tell you, Kent! We're robbed!" + +"M-m--who's rob--Oh, say, lemme alone!" murmured poor Kent, drowsily. + +Jot shook him again. + +"I tell you thieves!" he hissed in his ear. "The money's gone! Do you +hear? It isn't under the pin-cushion where we left it! It's gone! +We've been robbed, Kent Eddy!" + +The limp figure strengthened as if electrified and rose to a sitting +position. Kent's eyes flew open. + +"What?" he cried. + +"Get up quick, Kentie, and we'll wake Old Tilly up! Maybe we can catch +'em!" + +"Catch who? I wish you'd talk English, Jot Eddy!" + +Old Tilly was slumbering peacefully, oblivious to thieves and +five-dollar bills alike. It took a long time to wake him and longer +yet to make him understand the dire thing that had happened. + +"Get up! Get up! We've got to catch 'em!" concluded Jot. + +"Yes, the thieves--catch the thieves, you know!" Kent explained. "I +don't s'pose you'll lie there all night and let 'em cut off with our +money, if you are Old Tilly!" + +Then something funny happened. Anyway, it seemed funny to Old Tilly. He +buried his face in the pillow and choked with laughter. + +"It's gone to his head!" whispered Jot, in alarm. + +"No, to his t-toe!" giggled Old Tilly, purple in the face. + +"Yes, sir, he's crazy as a loon. Let's call father, Jot!" + +"Hold on!--wait! It's all right, boys! The money is, and I am, and +everybody is! Just wait till I get my laugh out, won't you?" + +"No, sir, but we'll wait till you get out o' bed and that's this very +minute!" Jot exclaimed wrathfully. He was dancing up and down with +impatience. + +Old Tilly slowly brought a lean, shapely leg into view from beneath the +sheet. To the boys' amazement it was covered with a long black +stocking. Old Tilly, like the other boys, had been barefooted all day. + +"Thought I might as well get a good start in dressing!" he chuckled. +"Nothing like being read--" + +"Oh, come off!" + +"Well, I wish it would; there's something in the toe that hurts. Ow!" + +He drew off the stocking and gravely examined the snug little wad in the +toe. + +"The money!" cried Kent. + +"Yes, sir, the money!" Jot echoed in astonishment. + +"Why, so it is!" Old Tilly said in evident surprise. "Then the thieves +didn't get away with it, after all! I call that a lucky stroke--my +getting partly dressed overnight! No, hold on, you little chaps--don't +get uppy! I'll explain, honest I will! You see, I got up after a while +and put the money there for safe-keeping. I'd like to see the thief +that would look there for it! He'd get a good kick if he did!" + +It was half an hour later when the trio settled back into sleep again. +In the east already there were dim outriders of day trailing across the +darkness. + +Without further incident the three knights-errant got under way next +day. In a glare of July sunshine they rode away in search of +adventures, while Father and Mother Eddy in the kitchen doorway looked +after them a little wistfully. + +"Bless their hearts!" mother murmured tender-wise. + +"Good boys! Good boys!" said father, coughing to cover the break in his +voice. + +"I say, this is great!" called Jot, who led the van, of course. "This +is the way to do it!" + +[Illustration: "I say, this is great!" called Jot.] + +"Yes, sir!" Kent cried in high feather, "it feels as if you were reg'lar +old knights, you know! Isn't it jolly not to know what's going to +happen next?" + +Old Tilly's wheel slid up abreast of Kent's and proceeded sociably. + +"Esau Whalley's farm 'happens next,' and then old Uncle Rod King's +next," Old Tilly said calmly. "I guess we better wait till we get out +o' this neck o' woods before we settle down to making believe!" + +But three wheels driven by three pairs of sturdy, well-muscled legs get +over miles swiftly, and by ten o'clock the boys had turned down an +unfamiliar road and were on the way to things that happened. Before +noon knightly deeds were at their hand. Jot himself discovered the +first one. He vaulted from his bicycle suddenly, as they were bowling +past a little gray house set in weeds, and the others, looking back, saw +him carrying a dripping pail of water along the path to the kitchen +doorsteps. + +"The pail was out there on the well curb, asking to be filled," he +explained brusquely, as he caught up with them, "and the old woman +pumping into it didn't look as if lugging water agreed with her. +Besides, I wanted a drink." + +"You didn't get one," retorted Kent, wisely. + +Jot cast a sidewise glance upon him. + +"I said I wanted one, didn't I? Anybody can want a drink." + +"And take your remedy. Dose: lug one pail o' water for an old woman. +If not successful, repeat in ten min--" + +Jot made a rapid spurt and left his teaser behind. When Old Tilly had +come abreast of him again, he reached out a brotherly hand and bestowed +a hearty pat on his arm. + +"Good boy!" he said, and unconsciously his voice was like father's, +miles back in the kitchen doorway. It was the way father would have +said it. + +"That's the way to do. We'll pick up 'errands' to do for folks. What's +the use of being knights?" + +And Old Tilly's turn came next, in the way of driving the cows out of +somebody's corn patch and propping up the broken fence. If it took but +a few minutes, what of that? It saved a bent old man's rheumatic leg's, +and the gay whistle that went with it drifted into an open window and +pleased a little fretful child. + +"My turn next!" shouted Kent, gliding away from them out of sight over +the brow of a hill. + +"Good luck to you!" called Jot. "We're going into camp to take a bite. +No use being in such a rush." + +"When you come my way, drop in!" floated back faintly. They tilted their +wheels against trees and threw themselves down in the shade to rest. +Jot was ravenous with hunger. + +"Cakes are all right to begin on," he said, regarding mother's bountiful +store with approval. "But when I strike the next store you'll see the +crackers and cheese fly!" + +"I don't mind taking a hand in the scrimmage myself!" laughed Old Tilly, +munching a fat cake. "I say, wasn't Kent foolish to go scooting off +like that? Might as well have begun easy. I move we ride nights and +mornings mostly, and loaf noons. There's a moon, 'silver mo-oo-on'--" + +His voice trailed lazily into song. It was pleasant lounging in the +shade and remembering the hay was all in and adventures ahead. + +An hour or so later they moved on at a leisurely pace, looking for Kent. +The general direction had been agreed upon, so they experienced no +anxiety. It added to the fun to hunt for him. + +"Where in the world did he go to?" queried Old Tilly, laughing. "He +disappeared like a streak of lightning!" + +"I see him--there, under that tree!" cried Jot, waving a salute. "He's +lying down and enjoying life." + +But it was a tired old man under the tree, and, from his forlorn face, +he did not seem to be "enjoying life." He was very old, very shabby, +very tired. His unkempt figure had collapsed feebly by the way +apparently. What astonished the boys was the wheel that lay on its side +near him. He did not look like a wheelman. + +"Hold on. Old Till, I say!" called Jot in sudden excitement, forging +ahead to his side. "I say, that looks like our wheel--mine and Kent's! +I guess I know our wheel!" + +Jot was riding the borrowed machine. Kent had the one they owned +jointly. + +"You're right, sonny; it looks that way!" rejoined Old Tilly, excited in +his turn. "But we can't pounce on it and cut, you know. How do we know +what Kent's up to?" + +Jot grunted derisively. "Probably he's given it to the old duffer for a +birthday present--hundredth anniversary!" he scoffed. "That would be +taking his turn at doing knight-errands. Let's go right on and not +disturb the poor old man--" + +"Let's have sense!" remarked Old Tilly, briefly. "We'll forge on ahead +and hunt Kent up before we arrest tramps for bike-lifting. When he says +he's been robbed it'll be time to holler 'Stop, thief!'" + +"Yes, come on!" Jot called back as he shot ahead. "I haven't a doubt but +we'll find Kentie's got his bike tucked away all safe in the toe of his +stocking!" + +They came almost instantly into the outskirts of a snug little +settlement. The road was flanked on both sides by neat white houses. +Trig little children scurried out of their way, cheering shrilly. +Somewhere there was music. [Transcriber's note: the word "trig", above, +is as it appears in the original book.] + +"Hark!" Jot cried. + +"Hark yourself! That's a good hand-organ," Old Tilly said; and he +hummed the familiar tune, and both wheels sped on to the time of it, as +it seemed. The music grew louder. "Look up in that dooryard, will you! +Jot Eddy, look at the chap that's grinding it!" + +Jot uttered an exclamation of astonishment. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +Up in one of the shady side yards stood Kent, turning the crank of a +hand-organ! He was facing the highway where the other two boys were, +but not a trace of recognition was in his face. Ranged in a semicircle +before him was a line of little children shuffling their toes to the gay +tune. + +"It's Kent!" gasped Jot. + +"Or his ghost--pretty lively one! Where in the world did he get that +hand-organ? And what's he done with his bike? Why--oh!" + +Old Tilly added two and two, and, in the light of a sudden inspiration, +they made four. Yes, of course, that was it, but he would wait and let +Jot guess it out for himself. Jot had other business in hand just then. + +"Say, come on up there with the youngsters, Old Till!" he whispered +excitedly. "Come on, quick! We'll make him smile! He can't keep his +face with us tagging on with the children!" + +They left their wheels beside the road and stalked solemnly up the path. +The children were too intent on the music to notice them, and the figure +at the crank did not change its stiff, military attitude. The tune +lurched and swayed on. + +Suddenly, with a sharp click, the music swept into something majestic +and martial, with the tread of soldiers' feet and the boom of drums in +it. The faces of the little children grew solemn, and unconsciously +their little shoulders straightened and they stood "at attention." They +were all little patriots at heart and they longed to step into file and +tramp away to that splendid music. + +Again the tune changed sharply, and still again. Then the organ-grinder +slung his instrument with an experienced twist and twirl across his +shoulders, and took off his cap. + +"Look, will you? He's going to pass it round!" giggled Jot, under his +breath. "He'll pass it to us, Old Till!" + +"Keep your face straight, mind!" commanded Old Till, sharply. + +The organ-grinder handed round his cap, up and down the crooked line of +his audience. The two sober boys at one end dropped in a number of +pennies, one at a time deliberately, + +"Bless ye!" murmured the organ-grinder, gratefully. Jot's brown face +tweaked with the agony of keeping straight, but Old Tilly was equal to +the occasion. He assumed a benevolent, pitying expression. + +"Hold on a minute!" he called. "Here's a nickel for your poor wife and +children. How many you got?" + +"Five, sir, your honor," the musician murmured thickly. + +"Starving?" + +"Sure--all but a couple of the little uns. They're up 'n' dressed, +thank ye; bless ye!" + +Jot made a strange, choking sound in his throat. + +"Is the young gent took ill?" inquired the organ-grinder, solicitously. + +"No, oh, no; only a slight attack of strangulating--he's liable to +attacks. It was the music--too much for him!"' Old Tilly gravely +explained, but his lips quivered and struggled to smile. + +The whole little procession trailed slowly down the lane to the street. +At the next house and at all the others in succession, it turned in and +arranged itself in line again, prepared to listen with ears and dancing +toes. Jot and Old Tilly followed on in the rear. They found it hard +work to find pennies enough to drop into the organ-grinder's cap at +every round. Toward the end they economized narrowly. + +The small settlement came to an abrupt ending just over the brow of the +hill. The houses gave out, and the musician and his audience swung +about and retraced their steps. The children dropped off, a few at a +time, until there were left only the three boys, who went on soberly +together. + +"Oh, say!" broke out Jot at last. + +"'Tis not for the likes o' me to 'say,' your honor," the organ-grinder +murmured humbly, and Jot gave him a violent nudge. + +"Let's knock off foolin'!" he cried. "I say, where'd you get that +machine, Kentie? Where'd you get it? And for the sake o' goodness +gracious, where's your wheel?" + +"'Turn, turn, my wheel,'" quoted Kent from the Fourth Reader. He was +shaking with suppressed laughter, that turned into astonishment at Old +Tilly's calm rejoinder. If it didn't take Old Till to ferret things +out! + +"It isn't liable to 'turn, turn,' while that old tramp has it," Tilly +said calmly. "He isn't built for a rider. What kind of a trade did you +make, anyway? Going halves?" + +"No, going wholes!" Kent answered briefly, and would say no more. They +went on down the sandy road. When they got back to the forlorn old +figure under the tree, it was slowly rising up and regarding them out of +tired, lack-luster eyes. The wheel still leaned comfortably in its +place close by. + +"Me--bring--money. Play--tunes. You--buy--food," Kent said very slowly +and distinctly, pausing between every word. "He's a foreigner, you +know," he explained over his shoulder to the boys. "He no understand. +You have to talk pigeon English to him. See how he catches on to what I +said?" + +The old face had grown less dull and weary. A slow light seemed to +illumine it. As the little stream of pennies dripped into the +tremulous, wrinkled old hand, it suddenly flashed into a smile. Then a +stream of strange words issued from the old man's lips. They tripped +over each other and made weird, indistinguishable combinations of sound, +but the boys translated them by the light of that smile. How pleased +the old fellow was! How he fingered over the pennies exultantly! + +"Tell the whole story, old man," Old Tilly said quietly as they mounted +their wheels and glided off. "It looks like a reg'lar novel!" + +"Yes, hurry up, can't you!" impatiently Jot urged. "Begin at the +beginning, and go clear through to the end." + +"You've helped folks. Why shouldn't I? There weren't any old ladies +with empty water pails, or any cows in corn lots, so I had to take up +with the poor old organ-grinder. That's all." + +"All!" scoffed Jot, "Go on with the rest of it, Kent Eddy!" + +"Isn't any 'rest,'" grunted Kent, "unless you count the organ-grinder; +he had some-looked as if he'd rested. Well, sir"--Kent suddenly woke +up--"but without any fooling, you ought to have seen that old chap when +I came on him. He was all used up--heat, you know. There was a creek, +back a ways, and the water kind of pulled him up. He couldn't talk +English, but he offered me a black two-cent piece for pay. He turned +his pocket out to find it. That set me to thinking I'd make him a +little richer." + +"Of course! Go on!" hurried Jot. + +"Isn't any 'on.'" + +"There's honor," Old Tilly cried softly. "I say that was splendid, +Kentie! I like that!" + +Kent flushed uneasily. Old Tilly's face looked like father's when he +said his rare, hearty words of commendation. + +"Well, the organ-grinder likes it, too!" Kent laughed. "Now he can have +something to eat. Poor old fellow! He couldn't have gone through all +those dooryards to save his life! He was 'most sunstruck. I told a +motherly old lady about him, at one of the houses, and she's going to be +on the lookout for him, and give him a snack of meat and bread." + +They went on for half a mile quite silently. Then, without warning. +Jot suddenly began to laugh. He tumbled off his bicycle and collapsed +in a feeble heap. + +"Don't anybody st-op me !" he cried. "It's dangerous! I'm having one o' +my 'attacks'!" + +The others joined in, and, for a little, the woods rang with boyish +mirth. + +"It was rich!" stammered Jot. "Passing the hat round capped it!" + +"It was great!" laughed Old Tilly. "You're an actor, Kentie!" + +"Me! What are you?" + +"Well, I can't grind a hand-organ and pass round the hat like that!" + +"I could!" Jot cried, suddenly sobering down and going through the +motions of turning a crank with airy ease. "It's 'most too easy for +me!" + +The fun lasted until night. It was Saturday, and they rode until sunset +without further stops. + +"We'll rest awhile and then go on by moonlight," Old Tilly said. "It +will be jolly and cool then. Besides, we don't want to be on the road +to-morrow. I promised mother I'd see that you all kept Sunday." + +"And go to church ?" Jot said. + +"Yes, and go to church, it there's one to go to anywhere," Old Tilly +rejoined quietly. "I told mother I'd see that you fellows went to +church quiet and nice, if possible. She put in the extra collars and +neckties on purpose." + +A long rest, with a hearty lunch, and then they were off again in the +clear moonlight. It was splendid. The trees, the road, the pale, +ghostly houses--everything had a weird, charmed aspect. They might have +been riding through fairyland. It was growing late, they knew, and at +last they stopped, out of sheer weariness. + +A great, square bulk loomed faintly before them in the waning moonlight. +It might be a house--might be a mountain! Jot spurted on ahead to +reconnoiter. + +"House!" he shouted back. "Doors open--all quiet--guess it's on a picnic +ground. I felt a stair that seemed to lead up to a balcony or +something." + +"Well, we're sleepy enough. We'll take anything we can get!" yawned +Kent. + +"Come on, then." + +And, riding into what seemed a yard, they found a good place for their +wheels under some bushes. The moon was too low to give them any light, +but the boys found the doorway to the big building and went up the +stairs, guided by their hands along the narrow passageway. They could +only discern a queer little enclosure, topped by a little rail. They +were too thoroughly tired out to be curious, and, feeling some narrow +seats, they lay down, and, making themselves comfortable, were soon +asleep. + +Jot was dreaming that Old Tilly had made him go to church and the people +were singing, when suddenly he opened his eyes. Was he dreaming? Over +him floated a sweet hymn, one his mother loved to join in singing at +church Sunday morning. The boy's eyes opened wider still at sight of +flecks of sunshine dancing on the walls near, and, raising his head, he +saw through the clear little panes of a long window, where the green +leaves were dancing against the glass. The singing went on, and the boy +raised himself in a wondering fashion upon his elbow. Where were they? +Jot lifted his head still higher, and, glancing over the railing, he +looked down upon a goodly company. The amazement on his face grew +greater instead of less. They were in church!--that was sure. Jot +looked back to his sleeping companions and held his breath as one of +them stirred uneasily. What if he should roll off the bench? The hymn +grew louder and sweeter, and Jot smoothed out his hair and straightened +his necktie and sat up straight. The branches outside tapped the +narrow, small paned window near him, and from the open windows below the +sweet beauty of the summer morning stole in. But as the minister rose +to give out his text, a sound from one of the boys back of him caused +Jot to turn. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Jot turned in his narrow seat there in the church gallery as he heard a +sound that made him think his brothers were waking. But Old Tilly had +only stirred in his sleep and struck out a little jarringly against the +back of the narrow gallery pew. Jot turned back and scanned the place +they had so innocently taken for their quarters the night before. The +gallery pew they were in was like a tiny half-walled room, with seats +running around three sides and up to the queer door on the fourth side. +The walls of the pews were almost as high as Jot's head if he had dared +to stand up. + +Kent stirred uneasily and threw out his arm with a smart rap against the +side. Jot crept across to him in terror. "Sh! Sh! Keep quiet! don't +breathe! You're in meeting!" he whispered. "The minister's down there +preaching now! Oh, sh!" + +"Lemme--" But Jot's hand cut off the rest. The other hand gently shook +Kent's arm. + +"I tell you we're in meeting; don't make a sound!" + +"Who's making a sound?" whispered Kent, now thoroughly awake. Was Jot +taken suddenly crazy? Hark! who was that talking? + +"If you don't believe me, raise your eye over that wall and sec what!" +whispered Jot eagerly. He drew Kent up beside him and they peeped +carefully over. Kent dropped back, as Jot had done, in sheer surprise. +The two boys gazed at each other silently. It was too much for Kent, +though, and, to suppress a laugh, he stuffed his handkerchief in his +mouth. + +Kent pointed to Old Tilly and smiled broadly. + +"He promised mother he'd take us to meeting," he whispered, "and he's +done it!" + +"Yes, but she wouldn't like to see him asleep in church!" Jot whispered +hack. + +Below them the minister's deep voice tolled on solemnly. They could not +catch all the words. + +"Come on! I'm going to sit up like folks. I want to hear what he's +saying," Jot whispered after awhile. + +They smoothed their hair and tried to straighten collars and ties, and +then suddenly some of the people down below in the body of the church +glanced up and saw two boyish faces, side by side, in the gallery. The +puzzle was beyond unraveling. The women prodded each other gently with +their parasol tips and raised their eyebrows. The men looked blank. +When had those youngsters got up there in that pew? One of the deacons +scowled a little, but the two quiet brown faces allayed his suspicions. +It wasn't mischief--it was mystery. + +The sight that had met Jot's astonished eyes in the beginning was a +quaint one. This was a new kind of a church! At home there were rows +upon rows of red-cushioned seats, with the hymn books and fans in the +racks making the only break to the monotony. Here the pews were all +little square rooms with high partitions and doors. The hard board +seats ran 'way round them all, so that in some of them people were +sitting directly "back to" the minister! Rows on rows of the little +rooms, like cells, jutted against each other and filled up the entire +space below save the aisles and the pulpit. + +[Illustration: This was a new kind of church.] + +And the pulpit! Jot's eyes returned to it constantly in wondering +admiration. There was a steep flight of stairs leading up to it on each +side, and an enormous umbrella-like sounding-board was poised heavily +above it. The pulpit itself was round and tail and hung above the heads +of the congregation, making the practice of looking up at the good old +minister a neck-aching process. Directly beneath the pulpit was a seat +facing the people. It was empty now, but a hundred years ago, had the +lads but known it, the deacons had sat there and the "tithing-man," +whose duty it was to go about waking up the dozers with his long wand. +It was called the Deacon's Seat, and if sometimes the deacons themselves +had dropped off into peaceful naps--what then? Did the "tithing-man" +nudge them sharply with his stick, or was he dozing, too? + +There are still a few of these old landmarks left in the country. Now +and then we run across them and get a distinct flavor of old times, and +it is worth going a good many miles to see the inside of one of them. +By just shutting one's eyes and "making believe" a little, how easy it +would be to conjure up our dear old grandmothers in their great scoop +bonnets, and grandfathers with their high coat collars coming nearly to +their bald crowns! And the Deacon's Seat under the pulpit--how easy to +make believe the deacons in claw-hammer coats and queer frilled shirt +bosoms! + +The people Jot and Kent saw were ordinary, modern people, and their +modern clothes looked oddly out of date against the quaint old setting. +Jot thought with a twinge of sympathy how hard the seats must feel, and +how shoulders must ache against the perfectly straight-up-and-down +backs. He felt a sudden pity for his great-grandmother and great-uncles +and aunts. + +This especial old church, box-like and unchurchly without and ancient +within, was rarely used for worship except in the summer months. Then +there were services in it as often as a minister could be found to +conduct them. The three young adventurers had stumbled upon it in the +dark and overslept out of sheer physical weariness. It was up in one of +the old choir pews in the high gallery they had wakened--or Jot had +wakened--to the strains of the beautiful hymn his mother loved. + +The whole explanation was simple enough when it was explained. Kent and +Jot worked it out slowly in their own minds. + +Meanwhile Old Tilly slept on, and the sermon came to an end. There was +another hymn and then the benediction. The people dispersed slowly, and +once more the big house was deserted. + +Then Jot woke Old Tilly. "I say," he cried, "I say, old fellow, wake +up!" + +"Yes, I'm coming in a minute!" muttered Old Tilly. + +"You'll be late for church," remarked Kent dryly, with a wink at Jot. + +Old Tilly stirred and rose on his elbow. Then he gave a bewildered look +around him. + +"You're in church. Didn't you promise mother you'd take us to church?" + +"Yes." + +"But you slept all through the service," said Kent, "and I shall tell +mother so!" + +"Kent Eddy, what are you trying to get at? How did we get here, +anyhow?" said Old Tilly, rising cautiously; and then, as he looked down +on the empty room below, standing to his full height, he said. "Well, if +I ever!" a laugh breaking through his white teeth. "I should say we had +been in church!" he added. "Why didn't you fellows wake me up? What +did the folks think?" + +"Oh, they only saw the two good boys sitting on the seat facing them! +We didn't say we had another one smuggled in under beside us. But my! +You did rap the seat awfully once with your elbow!" + +"Well, I know one thing: my shoulder aches from lying on that narrow +seat so long," said Old Tilly. "I say, let's go down to the wheels and +the grub. I'm half starved!" + +"All right," said Kent in rather a subdued way. The morning service had +stolen pleasingly through him, and somehow it seemed to the little lad +as though their ship had been guided into a wonderfully quiet harbor. +And now he followed his brothers down the narrow stairs that they had so +innocently groped their way up in darkness the night before. The three +had agreed to leave the church and partake of the lunch that was in the +baskets on the wheels, but now they found doing so not as easy of +accomplishment as they had at first thought. When they tried the outer +door they found to their dismay that it was locked. Old Tilly would not +believe Kent, and he pushed the latter's hand off the door knob rather +impatiently. "Let me get hold of it!" + +But, rattle the door as he might, he could not stir the rusty lock. + +"Well, we're locked in, that's sure!" said Kent, looking almost +dismayed. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +"I guess you're right, Jotham," Old Tilly said. + +"But what in the world did they go and lock up for, when we got in just +as easy as pie last night?" exclaimed Kent, disgustedly. + +"Oh, ask something easy!" Jot cried. "What I want to know is, how we're +going to get on the other side o' that door." + +The care-taker, if one could call him that, of the old meeting-house, +had taken it into his head to take care of it!--or it may have been that +the key chanced to be in his pocket, convenient. At all events, the +door was securely fastened. The three boys reluctantly gave up the +attempt to force it. + +"Windows!" Kent suddenly exclaimed, and they all laughed foolishly. +They had not thought of the windows. + +"That's a good joke on the Eddy boys!" Old Tilly said. "We sha'n't hear +the last of it if anybody lets on to father." + +"Better wait till we're on the other side of the windows!" advised Kent. +"Maybe it isn't a joke." + +There were windows enough. They were ranged in monotonous rows on all +sides of the church, above and below. They all had tiny old-fashioned +panes of glass and were fastened with wooden buttons. It was the work +of a minute to "unbutton" one of them and jump out. + +"There!" breathed Jot in relief, as his toes touched sod again, "I feel +as if I'd been in prison and just got out." + +"Broken out--that's the way I feel. I wish we could fasten the window +again," Old Tilly said thoughtfully. + +Kent was rubbing his ankle ruefully. + +"It was a joke on us, our mooning round that door all that time, and +thinking we were trapped!" + +"Oh, well, come on; it doesn't matter, now we're free again." + +"Come along--here are our wheels all right," Old Tilly said briskly. +"Let's go down to that little bunch of white houses there under the +hill, and pick out the one we want to stay over night in." + +"The one that wants us to stay in it, you mean! Come on, then." + +It was already mid-afternoon. The beautiful Sunday peace that broods +over New England's country places rested softly on new-mown fields and +bits of pasture and woods. The boys' hearts were made tender by the +service they had so unexpectedly attended, and as the beauty of the +scene recalled again the home fields, they fell into silence. A tiny, +brown-coated bird tilted on a twig and sang to them as they passed. The +little throat throbbed and pulsated with eager melody. + +Old Tilly listened to the song to its close, then swung round suddenly. +His face was like father's when he got up from his knees at family +prayers. + +"That bird seems singing, 'Holy, holy, holy,'" Old Tilly said softly. +"Can't you hear?" + +"Yes, I hear," murmured Jot. + +The little white house they picked out sat back from the highway in a +nest of lilac bushes. It reminded the boys a very little of home. + +"Stop over night? Away from home, be ye? Why, yes, I guess me an' pa +can take you in. One, two--dear land! there's three of ye, ain't there? +Yes, yes, come right in! I couldn't turn three boys away--not three!" + +The sweet-faced old woman in the doorway held out both hands +welcomingly. She seemed to get at the history of the three young +knights by some instinctive mind-reading of her own--the boys themselves +said so little. It was the little old lady's sweet voice that ran on +without periods, piecing Old Tilly's brief explanatory words together +skillfully. + +"Havin' a holiday, be you? I see. Well, young folks has to have their +outin's. When they git as old as me an' pa, they'll be all innin's!" +she ran on. Suddenly she stooped and surveyed them with a placid +attempt at sternness. "I hope you've all be'n to meetin'?" she cried. + +Jot's face twisted oddly. + +"Yes," Old Tilly answered, subduedly, "we've been to church." + +"I thought so--I thought so. Now come in an' see pa--poor pa' He was +took again yesterday. He's frettin' dretfully about the hay. Pa--" + +Her voice went on ahead and heralded their coming. "Here's three boys +come to stop over night with us--three, pa. You're glad there's three +of 'em, ain't you? I knew you'd be. When I'd counted 'em up, I didn't +hesitate any longer! The littlest one looks a little mite like our Joey, +pa--only Joey was handsome," she added innocently. + +Kent nudged Jot delightedly. They were entering a quaint, old-fashioned +room, and at the further end on a hair-cloth settle lay a withered +morsel of an old man. His sun-browned face made a shriveled spot of +color against the pillows. + +"That's pa," the little old lady said, by way of introduction. "He was +took yesterday, out in the field. It was dretful hot--an' the hay 'most +in, too. He's frettin' because he couldn't 've waited a little mite +longer, ain't you, pa? I tell him if the boys was here--" She broke +off with a quiver in her thin, clear voice. Pa, on the couch, put out +his hand feebly and smoothed her skirt. + +"We had three boys--ma an' me," he explained quietly. "That's why ma was +so quick to take you in, I guess. They was all little shavers like you +be." + +"Yes, jest little shavers," said ma, softly. "They hadn't got where I +couldn't make over 'em an' tuck 'em in nights, when they was took away-- +all in one week. You wouldn't have thought 'twould have be'n all in one +week--three boys--would you? Not three! I tell pa the Lord didn't give +us time enough to bid 'em all good-by. It takes so long to give up +three!" + +Old Tilly and the others stood by in odd embarrassment. Jot was bothered +with a strange sensation in his throat. + +But the old lady's sorrowing face brightened presently. She bustled +about the room busily, getting out chairs and setting straight things +crooked in her zeal. + +"I guess you're hungry, ain't you? Boys always is--an' three boys! +Dear! how hungry three boys can be! I'm goin' out to get supper. Pa, +you must do the entertainin'." + +The bread was "just like mother's"--white with a delicious crust--and +the butter yellow as gold, and Jot helped himself plentifully. "Ma," +behind the tea urn, watched him with a beaming face. + +"That's right!--I love to see boys eat! I tell pa sometimes I can just +see our three boys settin' at this table eatin' one of ma's good meals +o' victuals. You must have some of this custard, Joey." A faint +essence of added tenderness crept into the wistful old voice at that +name. The boys knew that Joey had been the little old lady's baby. + +"Joey was a great hand for custard. Joey was a master hearty boy." + +After supper, the boys wandered out around the tiny farm. It was at best +a rocky, uneven place, but there were evidences of "pa's" hard work on +it. Most of the grass had been mowed and carried into the barn, but +there was one small field still dotted over with cocks of overripe hay. +Old Tilly strode over and examined it with an air of wisdom. + +"Too ripe," he commented. "I guess it won't be worth getting in, if it +stays out here much longer." + +"He meant to have it all in yesterday--she said he did. I mean that +little old lady said so," Jot remarked. + +"Well, if it isn't all in to-morrow, it's a goner," Old Tilly said +decisively. + +"Now, boys, there's lots o' good water out in the cistern," the old lady +said, when they came back. "I've put the towels handy in the shed. It +may be you'll sleep sounder if you have a nice sponge off." + +Only too glad, the boys took to the shed, and then followed their guide +to the airy room waiting. How the pillows fitted a fellow's head! as +Jot said luxuriously. And the beds, how good they felt after those hard +church pews! They were sound asleep in a moment. + +The little old lady stole in to look at them. She held the lamp high in +one hand and gazed down with wistful eyes into the three healthy brown +faces. When she went back to pa, her face was wet with a rain of tears. + +"They look so good, pa, lyin' there!" she said brokenly. "An' you'd +ought to see how much like Joey the littlest one throws up his arm!" + +The old man could not sleep. He kept asking if it looked like rain and +kept fretting because he could not move his legs about freely. + +"I've got to move 'em, ma," he groaned.-"I've got to practice before +to-morrer, so's to get the hay in. I've got to get the hay in, ma!" + +It was Jot, for a wonder, who slept the longest. He woke with a start +of surprise at his strange surroundings. Then he sat up in bed, blinking +his eyes open wider. The room was a large one with two beds in it. He +and Kent had slept in one, and Old Tilly in the other. It was just +before sunrise, and in the east a wide swathe of pink was banding the +sky. Outside the window, a crowd of little birds were tuning up for a +concert. + +Jot rubbed his eyes again. There was no one else in the room. The +other boys had vanished completely. He leaped out of bed with a queer +sense of fright. Then he made a discovery. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +"Come on--haying's begun," the note read. It was in Kent's angular, +boyish hand, and Jot found it pinned conspicuously to the looking-glass +frame. "Old Till and I are at it. Come on out." + +So that was it? They were getting in the poor little morsel of an old +man's hay. Jot jumped into his clothes with a leap and was out in the +hay-field with them. He was inclined to be cross at being left dozing +while the work began. + +"I call that shabby mean," he protested. "Why couldn't you wake a +fellow up? I guess I'd like a hand in helping the old man out, as well +as either of you." + +"Wake you up!" laughed Kent. "Didn't I tickle the soles of your feet? +Didn't I pinch you? What more do you want?" + +"You wouldn't wake up, Jot," Old Tilly said cheerfully. "I took a hand +at it myself, but nothing this side of a brass band would 've done it +this morning. We couldn't bring that in, you know, for fear of waking +the folks. So Kent wrote you a letter." + +The work went on splendidly. They were all in fine haying trim, and the +cocks in the rough little field were tossed briskly into the rack. +There were three loads, and the last one was safely stowed in the haymow +before the little old lady in the house had stirred up her breakfast +cake. + +[Illustration: They were all in fine haying trim.] + +"I hope she won't discover anything before we get away," Old Tilly said. +"It would be such fun to have it a reg'lar surprise!" + +"Wouldn't it!" cried Jot. + +"But she might think somebody'd come along in the night and stole it, +don't you see?" Kent objected. + +"No, sir, I don't see. I guess she'd see our trail. And besides, look +up there in the mow! It doesn't look just exactly as it did before we +began!" + +A few minutes after the boys had glided away on their wheels, the little +old lady hurried into "pa's" room. + +"Pa, pa, it's all in, jest as nice as a new pin! Every spear's in!" she +cried delightedly. "Them three boys did it before breakfast. I knew +what they was up to, but I wasn't goin' to spoil their little surprise! +I guess I know how boys like surprises. Don't you remember how Hilary +an' Eben got the potatoes all dug that time an' surprised you? How +innocent their little faces looked when you said, 'Hum-suz-a-day! how it +makes my back ache thinkin' o' those potatoes!' Joey was a tittle thing +in kilts, but he helped. He tugged 'em in, in his own little basket--I +can see jest how proud he looked! But I evened up a little on the +surprise. I guess when they come to open them bicycle baskets they'll +see some things in the way of apple-pie that was not there earlier!" + +All the morning the boys wondered at the stream of wagons traveling +their way. Then just at noon they found out what it meant. They came +round a sharp curve in the road upon a beautiful grove on the shore of a +lake. It was gay with flags and the bright dresses of women and +children. Here and there an awning or tent dotted the green spaces. +People were bustling about in all directions, laughing and shouting to +each other, and every few minutes there were new arrivals. + +"Hark! there's a band o' music! It's a circus!" cried Kent, excitedly. +Jot had disappeared somewhere in the crowd. + +"No-o, not a circus," Old Tilly said doubtfully. "It's some kind of a +big picnic. See, there's a kind of a track laid out over there where +that flag is. They're going to have some kind of athletics." + +"Foot-races and hurdles and things! Oh, I say, can't we stay and see +'em?" Kent cried eagerly. + +At that instant appeared Jot, waving his cap in great excitement. + +"Come on--we're invited!" he shouted. "There's going to be lots of fun, +I tell you! We can buy ice-cream, too, over in that striped tent, and +there are boats we can hire to row out in, and--everything." + +"Hold on a minute!" demanded Old Tilly with the sternness of authority. +"How did you get your invitation? and what is it that's going on, +anyway?" + +"Tell quick, Jot--hurry! They're getting ready for a foot-race," +fidgeted Kent. + +"It's a Grangers' picnic, that's what. And a big jolly Granger invited +us to stop to it. He asked if we weren't farmer boys, and said he +thought so by our cut when I said, yes sir-ee. He wants us to stop. He +said so. He says his folks have got bushels of truck for dinner, and we +can join in with them and welcome." + +"And thanking him kindly, I'll stop!" laughed Kent, in high feather. +"Come on over there, Jot, and see 'em race." And the three young +knights were presently in the midst of the gay crowd, as gay as anybody. + +The afternoon was full of fun for them. They made plenty of +acquaintances among the other brown-faced farmer boys, and entered into +the spirit of the occasion with the hearty zest of boys out holidaying. +They were a little careful about not being too free with their +spending-money. "'Cause we're out on a long run, you know," Old Tilly +said. But what they did spend went for their share of the entertainment +given so freely to them by the big Granger who had taken them in tow. +It was a day filled with a round of pleasure, as Jot had predicted. + +The athletic contests on the primitive little race-track proved the +greatest attraction of all. There were bicycle races after the +foot-racing and hammer-throwing and high jumping. Jot longed to vault +into his own wheel and whirl round the track dizzily, like the rest of +them. He and Kent stood together close to the turning-point. They had +somehow drifted away from Old Tilly. + +A new race began, and up at the starting-place there seemed to be a good +deal of hilarity. The hearty laughs were tantalizing. + +"What is it? Why don't they come on and give us fellows a chance to +laugh, too?" exclaimed Jot, impatiently. + +Kent was peering sharply between his hands. He suddenly began to laugh. + +"It's a slow race!" he cried. "They're trying to see who can get +behind! Come on up further where we can see. It'll be great!" + +"Come along, then--hurry!" shouted Jot. + +"It's a free-for-all. Anybody can compete," somebody was saying as they +passed. "But they've got to be slower than Old Tilly!" + +"Can't do it!" whispered Jot. "Old Tilly can sit still on his bike." + +"I hope he'll see the race," Kent panted. "It would be mean if he +missed. Here's a good place--there they come. Look at 'em crawling +along like snails! There's one chap clear behind. Yes, sir, he's +standing still!" + +Jot gave one look and uttered a shout: + +"It's Old Tilly!" + +"Jotham Eddy--no!" + +"Look for yourself and see--ain't it?" + +"Of course--no--yes, sir, it's Old Till, for a fact." + +"And he's 'way behind--I told you there wasn't anybody slower'n Old +Tilly! He's beating as fast as anything." + +"As slow as anything. Come on! Let's cheer him, Jot." + +They caught off their caps and cheered wildly. Every-body else joined +in, catching at the name and laughing over it as a good joke. + +"Hurrah--hurrah for Old Tilly!" + +"Hip, hip, 'n' a tiger for Old Til-ly!" + +The time-keeper called time, and Old Tilly descended from his victorious +wheel and bowed profoundly to his cheerers. He walked away to join the +other boys with the exaggerated air of a great victor, and the people +shouted again. + +"Oh, I say, that was rich, Old Till," gasped Jot. "That was worth a +farm!" + +"What made you think of entering?" Kent laughed. + +"Oh, I thought I would--I knew I could beat 'em," Old Tilly said +modestly. + +Sunset ended the festivities in the grove, and the boys mounted and rode +away with the other tired people. Gradually they fell behind. + +"Don't--rush--so; I've got to keep up my reputation!" said Old Tilly. +"Besides, I'm tired." + +"Me, too." + +"Same here. Let's camp out to-night in the woods. Why didn't we stay +there and camp in that grove?" + +"Well, we might have, but we won't go back," answered Old Tilly. "Come +on, let's make for that pretty little brown house. Maybe we can buy our +supper there." + +But the little brown house was shut up tight. The curtains were all +pulled down, and a general air of "not at home" pervaded even the +clapboards and the morning-glory vine over the door. Only the neat +little barn looked hospitable. Its doors stood open wide. A distant +rumble of thunder suddenly sounded, and the sky darkened with ominous +swiftness. + +"Going to rain," Kent said. + +"Sure," added Jot. "Look at those clouds, will you? We'd better get +into a hole somewhere." + +"We'll go into the barn," decided Old Tilly, after a minute's thought, +"and if it rains all night, we'll stay there. We can't do any harm." + +It rained all night. Shower after shower burst over them heavily, and +there was a continual boom of thunder in their ears. A slight respite +at midnight was followed by the most terrific shower of all. The boys +huddled together in the hay, with awe-struck faces, but unafraid. They +could not sleep in such a magnificent tumult of nature. + +Suddenly there was a blinding flash of lightning, then a crash. The +whole universe seemed tottering about them. Dizzy and stunned, they +gazed at each other, unable to move for an instant. Then it was Jot who +sprang up in tremulous haste. + +"I smell smoke--we're afire!" he exclaimed. + +"Yes," Old Tilly cried, striving to be calm, "it struck this barn." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +They darted away in search of the fire. The glare of the lightning +showed them their way, and presently they came into the glare of the +flames. The bolt had descended through the harness room. + +"Quick! Cattle first!" shouted Old Tilly, clearly. "We must save the +cattle, anyway!" + +"You go to them, you two--I'm going to the pump," called back Kent, +decisively. He remembered there was a pump just outside the barn, and +he was sure he had seen two or three pails standing about near it--yes, +there they were! He caught them up with a sweep as he leaped by. It was +the work of a moment to fill two pails and a moment more to dash them +down by the floor in one corner where the scattered hay was burning. +Again and again he made flying leaps to the pump and back. + +Meanwhile the other two boys were releasing the frantic cattle. It was +no simple thing to do--the poor creatures were so terrified. There were +two steers and a gentle-faced heifer. The boys had made acquaintance +with them the night before, and the poor things greeted them now with +piteous lows of appeal. + +"So, boss--so boss--so-o!" soothed Jot at the heifer's head. His +trembling fingers caressed the smooth, fawn-colored nose, as, with the +other hand, he untied her. She crouched back at first and refused to +pass that terrible flaming something on the way to safety outside. But +Jot pulled her along, talking to her all the way. + +In less time than it takes to tell of it, the cattle were out of danger. + +"Now the hens--hurry, hurry, Jot! I'm going to help Kent. It mustn't +get to the hay upstairs!" + +Thanks to Kent's steady, tireless work, there was little danger of that +now. Already the flames were greatly subdued, and only sputtered +aimlessly under the regular showers of water that fell upon them. The +two boys toiled over them patiently till just a blackened corner told +that they had been there in the trig little barn. + +It had been a short, sharp battle. A moment's indecision, a very little +less determined effort and presence of mind, and nothing but a miracle +could have saved the barn. And then the house! It stood so near--what +could have saved it? + +It was an hour or more before Old Tilly would allow the live stock +brought back into the barn. They hovered anxiously over the blackened +embers, for fear they might spring into life again. But at last there +seemed no danger, and presently the building settled back to quiet +again, and the tired rescuers tried to snatch a little sleep in the hay. +Jot woke the others in the first dim daylight. + +"Fire! Fire!" he screamed. + +"Where? Where is it?" cried Kent, springing to his feet. + +"Put--it--o-ut," mumbled Old Tilly. + +It was only a nightmare, but the boys could not doze again after it. + +It was just as the sun was rising clear and beautiful that the boys came +out from the barn, and as they caught sight of each other's blackened +faces in the dazzling light, they each gave way to a roar of laughter. +"Well, we all seem to be in the same boat," said Kent, making for the +pump and filling the pails one after the other. "Here's a pail apiece; +that ought to do it for us." Then he went to one of the wheel baskets +and brought back a crash towel and a generous piece of soap. "Now lay +to on yourselves, boys, and then we will see what we can scare up for +breakfast. I suppose there's no getting into the house, so we'll have +to depend on ourselves." But here Kent noticed how particularly quiet +Old Tilly was. + +"What's up, lad?" he said, as he plunged his face down into one of the +dripping pails, and then after scrubbing and sputtering for a while he +reached out blindly for a, towel, which one of the others tossed into +his hands. When his eyes were free, he drew a long breath, saying, +"Water fixes a fellow all right." But as he did this he noticed +something that made him exclaim sharply. It was the sight of Old Tilly +washing himself with one hand, while around the wrist of the other a +grimy handkerchief was bound. "Why didn't you say you were hurt?" he +said, coming over to Old Tilly's side. "What is it, anyway?" + +"Oh, it's nothing," said Old Tilly, with an impatient nod of his head. +"Maybe it's where the lightning ran down," he said, with a laugh. + +"Lightning!--not much! Come, out with it. What is it?" + +"Oh, it's just a tear on an old nail. One of those steers got a little +ugly, and I jumped back too suddenly. It's nothing." + +"We'll have to take your word for it," said Kent. But he very soberly +turned to the lunch baskets. It was just as they had packed up +everything neatly and were mounting their wheels to ride away, that a +wagon came rumbling down the grassy road and turned in to the farmyard. +A young man with a limp felt hat was on the seat with a woman wearing a +brown straw hat, while a tiny girl in a pink sunbonnet was nestled down +between them. + +"Halloo!" said the man, as he saw the boys. "Just leavin'?" + +"Yes, sir," said Old Tilly, respectfully. "We took the liberty of +sleeping in your barn last night. You see the storm kept us there all +night." + +"Well, the storm kept us, too," said the young farmer, reaching for the +little child and setting her down by the pump, and then helping the +woman to alight. + +The young woman gave a relieved look around, first at the barn and then +at the house, and said delightedly: + +"Oh, Jim, how good it does seem to see everything safe! I can't believe +my eyes hardly." And she added, turning to the boys with a slightly +embarrassed laugh, "I never was very good to stay away from home nights, +and we didn't mean to stay last night, but the rain kept us. It just +seemed to me that with every clap of thunder we'd find everything burned +to ashes, and the whole place gone." + +Tears came into her eyes, as she turned and gave her hand to the little +child. "Well, I'm going in to get breakfast," she said, a glad, +tremulous light showing across her face. "You better bring these boys in +to breakfast, Jim. If they've just slept in the barn they must be +hungry." Then turning back again with a heartier laugh, "I feel that +glad to see everything, even to the chickens, just as we left them, that +I wouldn't object to asking the President of the United States to +breakfast. You ain't from around here, are you?" she asked, looking at +the boys. "I thought not. And you're hungry, I'll wager," she said, as +she bustled away with the little girl tugging at her skirts, not waiting +for the boys to disaffirm, as they most assuredly would have done had a +chance been given them, for they were not in the least hungry. But +then, what was a cold luncheon taken from a bicycle basket compared with +a warm breakfast that might include ham and eggs? + +"She's awfully nervous, Nancy is," said the young farmer, a trifle +apologetically; "she would have it at brother Ed's that she was being +burned out of house and home. We oughtn't to have stayed, but brother +Ed urged us to go home with him. She's always that way when she's away. +We've ridden nineteen miles since daybreak, and she believed every mile +that we were going to see a burned-down house at the end." + +"Well," said Old Tilly in a quiet way, so as not to alarm the young +farmer, "I guess she was about right this time. If we hadn't happened +here--" Then he slipped back into the barn, and the young farmer +followed after, and Old Tilly pointed to the blackened corner, while the +other two drew near interestedly. + +"You see how it struck," Old Tilly said quietly, "but we put it out +after a while. It is well we happened to be right here." + +The young farmer was gazing at the burned place, with his jaw dropped +and a look of terror coming into his blue eyes. + +"It did strike! I should say it did!" he cried excitedly. "What will +Nancy say?" + +[Illustration: "I should say it did strike!" he cried, excitedly.] + +Then as a realization came to him that it was owing to the boys that +they had a roof over their heads, he turned first to one lad and then to +the other, and shook their hands heartily. There were tears in his +eyes, but he did not seem conscious of them. "I don't know what Nancy +'ll say," he reiterated, as he shook one hand after the other up and +down like a pump handle. "We'll have to be everlastingly obliged to you +for the rest of our days," he said, trying to laugh a little. But his +voice choked, and he turned away to hide his emotion. Then he dropped +down upon a corn-cutter and insisted on hearing the story from beginning +to end, although Old Tilly declared time and again, with the other two +joining in, that "It was nothing." + +"You call it nothing? Well, you wait until you've worked half a +lifetime, as Nancy and me have done, to get a place, and then see what +you think about it. I guess Nancy 'll believe it's something." + +Then he stopped as a clear call, "Breakfast! Breakfast!" came ringing +out to them from the open door beyond the pump. "Perhaps we'd better not +say anything about it until after breakfast. She's had a powerful +uneasy night, and it's been a good bit of a ride over, too." + +To this the boys assented, and the four walked across the yard to the +kitchen door, where the little girl was shyly waiting for them. + +"Ain't you the young chap that beat in the bicycle slow race?" asked +Nancy, when she caught a sight of Tilly's face as he removed his hat. + +The other two boys laughed, and the farmer, looking squarely at his +visitor, said: + +"Well, I thought I'd seen you somewhere." + +And then they settled down to breakfast in the happiest frame of mind, +evidently, that could be imagined. But all the time Old Tilly kept one +hand down at his side, a little out of sight, and the boys noticed that +he took upon his plate only such things as he could very easily manage +with one hand. The breakfast, for a hurried one, was very satisfactory +indeed. Jot and Kent ate with full appreciation of it. + +But had they watched closely, they would have seen how Old Tilly's face +now flushed and then grew pale, and that occasionally he brought his +lips together as though striving to control himself. + +But, all unmindful of what the boy was undergoing, Nancy presided +merrily over the table, and kept prompting Jim to fill up the plates as +they needed it, and pressed this and that upon the boys' attention. + +"I don't feel as if I should ever want to go away again," she cried. +"It's so good to be at home. I've been through every room in the house +and taken a view of them all." And then she said laughingly, turning to +the boys, "Not that there are so very many of 'em, but they're all we've +got, you know. After breakfast we're going out to the barn, ain't we, +Polly?" she added. + +But now Kent noticed that Jot's face had suddenly sobered; he was +looking at Old Tilly anxiously; he had seen. His hand come up from +beneath the table, and he was sure that the handkerchief was spotted +with red. "I say--Old Tilly--" Jot got to his feet hastily. + +But Old Tilly's face was white, and he was swaying from side to side. +Old Tilly was fainting away. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"I--I'm awake now. What's the matter? Who's sick?" + +Old Tilly sat up dizzily. He had lost consciousness only for a moment, +but his face seemed to be growing whiter and whiter. Jot and Kent +hovered over him anxiously. + +"You got kind of faint, Old Till--just for a minute. You're all right +now," Kent said. + +"Of course I'm all right!--I always was! I don't see what you're making +such a fuss about!" But the pale face belied his words. + +Kent lifted the clumsily bandaged hand and unwound the handkerchief. It +was stained with blood. + +"Oh, what have you done, Kent! You shouldn't have taken the bandage +off!" exclaimed Jot, in fright. "See how the blood is dripping from the +cloth!" + +"It's nothing, I tell you!" growled Old Tilly. "Wind the thing up again! +It's only a nail tear!" + +Old Tilly was swaying again, and they forced him gently back. The +little woman looked up startled. + +"What is it, Jim? How did it happen?" she quavered. + +Jim's face looked very sober. "I guess I better fetch the doctor," he +said. "He hurt it on a nail, he says. I won't stop to harness up--Old +Betty's used to bein' rode bareback." + +He hurried away, followed by his wife. Jot was examining the torn wrist +tenderly. Some new, untried strength seemed to spring into the brown, +boyish face. It took on the lines of a man's. + +"It's an artery, Kentie. I know, because the blood leaps up so when the +handkerchief is off. It can't have been bleeding all night. I don't +understand." + +"It bled some last night," said Old Tilly, "but I stopped it. I guess I +hit it someway just now against the table. It began again worse than +ever. Cover it up, can't you? It's--all--right!" + +"It isn't all right! Get me a little stick, quick, Kentie! No, that +fork'll do. Hand it here. This bleeding's got to stop." + +It seemed odd that it should be Jot--little, wild, scatter-brained Jot-- +who should take the lead in that calm, determined way. What had come to +the boy? With pale face and set teeth he quietly bound the handkerchief +tightly above the wrist, and, inserting the fork handle in the knot, +twisted it about. The bleeding lessened--stopped. + +"There! Now, if I keep a good grip on it--oh, I say, Kentie, wasn't I +afraid I couldn't work it!" he said, breathing hard. + +"I don't see how you did work it! I don't see how you ever thought of +it, Jot Eddy!" + +"Well, I did. I read how it was done, up in the consultery. Father may +laugh, but I'm going to be a doctor!" + +Kent's face was full of new-born respect. He suddenly remembered that +it was Jot who had set "Rover's broken leg and nursed the little sick +calf that father set such store by. + +"I guess father won't laugh." Kent said soberly. Jot was sitting on the +edge of the lounge holding the fork in a firm grasp. Old Tilly opened +his eyes and nodded approvingly. + +"That's what I tried to do myself with the handkerchief--bind it tight. +It wasn't very bad at first, but I jerked it or something. I didn't +want you fellows' good time spoiled." + +"That's just like you!" burst out Kent. "You never tell when you get +hurt, for fear other folks'll be bothered." + +The little woman crept back into the kitchen and went quietly about her +work. + +The doctor soon came, and in a brief time the artery was taken up and +the hand deftly bandaged. + +"Which of you fellows made that tourniquet with the fork?" the doctor +asked brusquely. + +Kent pointed proudly to Jot. + +"Oh, it was you, was it? Well, you did a mighty good thing for your +brother there. He'd have lost plenty of blood before I got here if you +hadn't." + +The whole of that day and the next night the boys remained at "Jim's." +The doctor had positively objected to Old Tilly's going on without a +day's quiet. + +And the little woman--the little woman would not hear of anything else +but their staying! She had been out to the barn with Jim and seen the +blackened corner. After that she hovered over the three boys like a hen +over her chickens. + +"For--to think, Jim!--it was saving our home he got hurt!" she cried. + +The boys talked things over together, and Kent and Jot were for turning +about and going straight home. But not so Old Tilly. + +"I guess! No, sir; we'll go right ahead and have our holiday out. It's +great fun cruising round like this!" + +"But your hand, Old Tilly--the doctor said--" + +"To keep it quiet. He didn't say to sit down in a rocking-chair and +sing it to sleep. I guess if I can't ride a wheel with one hand, my +name isn't Nathan Eddy!" + +"It isn't'" laughed Kent. "It's Old Tilly Eddy!" + +But in the middle of the night a ghost appeared suddenly over Old Tilly. +The pale moonlight introduced it timidly as Jot, in his white shirt. He +sat down on the bed. + +"I'm going home," he announced in a whisper. "You other fellows can do +as you like. Of course you can ride all right with one hand, if you're +bound to. But I sha'n't ride with three hands any further from home! +I'm going home! I--I feel as if I must!" + +Old Tilly sat up in bed. "You sick, Jotham Eddy?" he cried. + +"No--o, not sick--not reg'lar built! But I tell you I'm going home. +It's no use saying anything--I've said it." "I believe you're sick; +you're keeping something back, Jot." + +"Well, what if I am? Didn't you keep something back yourself, till you +fainted away doing it? I'm going--you and Kentie needn't, of course. I +tell you I feel as if I must." + +"He's sick, Kentie," Old Tilly said next morning. "There's something the +matter with him, sure, or he wouldn't be so set. Don't you think he +LOOKS kind of pale-ish?" + +"Pale-ish!" scoffed Kent. + +"Well, something's up. Mother put him in my care, and I'm going to take +him home. I'd never forgive myself, and mother'd never forgive me, if +anything happened to Jot away from home. I'm sorry on your account, +Kentie." + +"Oh, go ahead! I'm all right," rejoined Kent, cheerfully. "I'd just as +soon. We've had a jolly good time of it so far, and we can take the +rest of it out in going fishing or camping at home." + +"Well, then we'll go right back home--on Jot's account. I feet as if I +must take him to mother." + +Poor Jot! It was hard to be taken home that way, when all the while +wasn't he taking wounded Old Tilly home to mother? It was the only way +he had been able to work it out, lying awake and worrying over the torn +wrist. Something must be done to get Old Tilly home. + +"I told the truth--I said I was keeping something back," thought Jot. +"I said I wasn't sick, didn't I? And Old Till's got to go home. The +doctor told me the sooner the better." + +But it was a distinct sacrifice to Jot's pride to be "taken home to +mother." He bore it remarkably well because of the love and anxiety in +his sturdy little heart. He would do a good deal for Old Till. + +They returned by a more direct route than they had come. On the way, +they discussed their adventures. Jot counted them up on his fingers. + +"Hand-organs, old churches, little old man's hay--pshaw! that wasn't an +adventure!" Jot blushed hotly, as if caught in some misdeed. + +"No, skip that," Old Tilly said quietly. "That just happened. Begin +over again." + +"Hand-organs, old churches (two adventures there, you know), picnics, +slow races--" + +"Skip that!" cried Old Tilly. + +"No, sir! Slow races, burning barns, arteries--" "Oh, I say! I'll do +the counting up myself! Besides, you left out the very first adventure, +didn't you?" + +"The very first one?" + +"Yes, of course--losing all our money before we started!" + +"Quits!" cried Jot, laughing. He did not appear sick at all. All the +way home he watched Old Tilly with almost professional care. And Old +Tilly, unknown to Jot, watched him. + +"Say, Jot," he said that night, when they had gone upstairs to their own +beds once more, "don't you feel a little better?" His face was white +and tired, and he nestled in the pillows gratefully. It was good to be +at home. "Don't you feel a good deal better?" + +"Me?" asked innocent Jot. "I feel jolly! Never felt--oh, er--I mean-- +that is--" + +"You're a rascal!" laughed Old Tilly, comfortably. "That's what you +mean. Think I didn't surmise a thing or two? Well, honest, I didn't, +at first. But on the way home I found out what you were up to. You +looked altogether too healthy!" + +There was a moment's silence, then Jot spoke meekly. "I felt sort of +mean, but I couldn't help it, honest. And I told the truth, now, didn't +I? I was going to own up to-morrow." + +He went away into the next room and crept into bed beside Kent. + +"Jot! Jot, I say!" called Old Tilly, presently. "Hope you don't think +I'm mad. I don't mind. I--I like it." + +There was an indistinct mumble of relief from Jot's quarter, followed by +another silence. Then again Old Tilly's contented voice crept through +the dark. + +"Say, Jot, you asleep?" + +"Yes, you?" + +"Sound! It feels mighty good to be home, doesn't it?" + +"Prime!" + +"Good-night, old chap!" + +"Same here!" + +Then silence, unbroken. By and by Mother Eddy stole upstairs to her +boys. + +"Good boys, every one of them. God bless them!" she murmured. "Home +isn't home without them. But young things must have their holidaying. +And I guess from what they tell, they've made good use of theirs. And +it isn't everyone does that; some of them just waste it. But this one's +held something in it. I don't know just what. But every one of them +seems--well, sort o' more manly-like. I'm glad their pa let them go. +But home ain't home without boys in it. That's sure." + +And she turned and went softly down the stairs. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Three Young Knights, by Annie Hamilton Donnell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THREE YOUNG KNIGHTS *** + +***** This file should be named 10901.txt or 10901.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/9/0/10901/ + +Produced by Prepared by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + + https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06 + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: + https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL + + diff --git a/old/10901.zip b/old/10901.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f20c13e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/10901.zip |