couldn’t tell it from brass!  The attitude of his mother was, however, still perplexing.  She was no longer actively indignant, but treated him with a mysterious reserve that was the more appalling.  The fact was that she no longer believed in his theft,—­indeed, she had never seriously accepted it,—­but his strange reticence and secretiveness piqued her curiosity, and even made her a little afraid of him.  The capacity for keeping a secret she believed was manlike, and reminded her—­for no reason in the world—­of Jim Medliker, her husband, whom she feared.  Well, she would let them fight it out between them.  More than that, she was finally obliged to sink her reserve in employing him in the necessary “chores” for the house, and he was sent on an errand to the country store at the cross-roads.  But he first extracted his gold-flake from the wall, and put it in his pocket.

On arriving at the store, it was plain even to his boyish perceptions that the minister had circulated his miserable story.  Two or three of the customers spoke to each other in a whisper, and looked at him.  More than that, when he began his homeward journey he saw that two of the loungers were evidently following him.  Half in timidity and half in boyish mischief he once or twice strayed from the direct road, and snatched a fearful joy in observing their equal divergence.  As he passed Mr. Staples’s house he saw that reverend gentleman sneak out of his back gate, and, without seeing the two others, join in the inquisitorial procession.  But the events of the past day had had their quickening effect upon Johnny’s intellect.  A brilliantly wicked thought struck him.  As he was passing a perfectly bare spot on the road he managed, without being noticed, to cast his glittering flake of gold on the sterile ground at the other side of the road, where the minister’s path would lie.  Then, at a point where the road turned, he concealed himself in the brush.  The Reverend Mr. Staples hurried forward as he lost sight of the boy in the sweep of the road, but halted suddenly.  Johnny’s heart leaped.  The minister looked around him, stooped, picked up the piece of gold, thrust it hurriedly in his waistcoat pocket, and continued his way.  When he reached the turn of the road, before passing it, he availed himself of his solitude to pause and again examine the treasure, and again return it to his pocket.  But, to Johnny’s surprise, he here turned back, walked quickly to the spot where he had found it, carefully examined the locality, kicking the loose soil and stones around with his feet until he had apparently satisfied himself that there was no more, and no gold-bearing indications in the soil.  At this moment, however, the two other inquisitors came in sight, and Mr. Staples turned quickly and hurried on.  Before he had passed the brush where Johnny was concealed, the two men overtook him and exchanged greetings.  They both spoke of “Johnny” and his crime; of having followed him with a view of finding out where he went to procure