“Anybody sick?” asked Mrs. Price, with instant sympathy.  “Nothin’ happened, I hope?”

“Oh, no,” said both the men.

“We came to talk about hiring your dog to-morrow night,” explained Isaac Brown, feeling for the moment amused at his eager errand.  “We got on track of a coon just now, up in the woods, and we thought we’d give our boys a little treat.  You shall have fifty cents, an’ welcome, and a good piece o’ the coon.”

“Yes, Square Brown; we can let you have the dog as well as not,” interrupted Mrs. Price, delighted to grant a favor.  “Poor departed ’Bijah, he set everything by him as a coon dog.  He always said a dog’s capital was all in his reputation.”

“You’ll have to be dreadful careful an’ not lose him,” urged Mrs. Topliff “Yes, sir; he’s a proper coon dog as ever walked the earth, but he’s terrible weak-minded about followin’ ’most anybody.  ’Bijah used to travel off twelve or fourteen miles after him to git him back, when he wa’n’t able.  Somebody’d speak to him decent, or fling a whip-lash as they drove by, an’ off he’d canter on three legs right after the wagon.  But ’Bijah said he wouldn’t trade him for no coon dog he ever was acquainted with.  Trouble is, coons is awful sca’ce.”

“I guess he ain’t out o’ practice,” said John York amiably; “I guess he’ll know when he strikes the coon.  Come, Isaac, we must be gittin’ along tow’ds home.  I feel like eatin’ a good supper.  You tie him up to-morrow afternoon, so we shall be sure to have him,” he turned to say to Mrs. Price, who stood smiling at the door.

“Land sakes, dear, he won’t git away; you’ll find him right there betwixt the wood-box and the stove, where he is now.  Hold the light, ’Liza Jane; they can’t see their way out to the road.  I’ll fetch him over to ye in good season,” she called out, by way of farewell; “’twill save ye third of a mile extra walk.  No, ’Liza Jane; you’ll let me do it, if you please.  I’ve got a mother’s heart.  The gentlemen will excuse us for showin’ feelin’.  You’re all the child I’ve got, an’ your prosperity is the same as mine.”

IV

The great night of the coon-hunt was frosty and still, with only a dim light from the new moon.  John York and his boys, and Isaac Brown, whose excitement was very great, set forth across the fields toward the dark woods.  The men seemed younger and gayer than the boys.  There was a burst of laughter when John Henry Brown and his little brother appeared with the coon dog of the late Mr. Abijah Topliff, which had promptly run away home again after Mrs. Price had coaxed him over in the afternoon.  The captors had tied a string round his neck, at which they pulled vigorously from time to time to urge him forward.  Perhaps he found the night too cold; at any rate, he stopped short in the frozen furrows every few minutes, lifting one foot and whining a little.  Half a dozen times he came near to tripping up Mr. Isaac Brown and making him fall at full length.