The Deserter, and Other Stories

e postponed, as it turned out, wheth

k empty-handed. He had driven about, over and through the drifted roads, for miles, directed by local rumors and

ten to any further delay, but sat doggedly in the sleigh, out on the road in front

one position, and I'm gittin' used to it. I don't want to climb out and limber up, and then have to freeze stiff all over agai

ust. "I hate to give up a thing this way. But," he added after a pause, "I s'pos

as he was about to step into the sleigh. He seated himself beside Moak, an

in spite of

chuckled, "drivin' you clean out of your senses. W

!" rejoined the deputy marshal, getti

r you?" suggested Job, half-t

hich both his hearers caught and comprehended. "And look here, boy, if you and the old man find yourselves in n

hostile suspicion at the

Then he drew the reins tight with a jerk, gave a loud, emphatic cluck to the

e had become a mere dwindling point of

deputy marshal had given him, and looked meditatively

e sleigh had disappeared. The pu

re. Neighbors from Juno Mills who drove by, after the road had settled into usable condition, noticed that the place had been "spruced up," and looked considerably more sh

lly referred to young Job. Even in this hard-working and tireless region, accustomed as it has always been to energetic and capable boys, men talked t

t is all. But the outcome of this was that April found old Asa Whipple once more, to all outward appearances, a hale and strong man for his years, and revealed the young lad who had adopted him,

s supposed flight to Canada, it ended usually in the conclusion that old Asa had made a goo

back early from the factory to finish a job upon which he had expended all the spare labor of a week. There was a patch of

was now dragging across it a heavy tree bough, old Asa following behind him wi

time to note the uneven way in which the ol

ugh, but still with a suggestion of impatience in his tone. "You'll see that grass come up all in

f afresh to the lesson which Job sought to teach;

s cut out for a farmer, anyway. Besides, what's the u

cow, and p'r'aps a horse to do the work," remonstrated the boy. "If

ir eyes against the declining sun to see who was seated in the buggy which had halted there a

ason why!" he

l day of Mose's return and escape, when he had gone over to the big farm-house toward dusk and got his clothes and

han ever against the reddening flare of sunlight, looked over at the

that I'm going to foreclose on this place in four days' time. I've entered judgment for one hundred and six dollars and seventy-three cents, countin' interest and all

nd drove down the road a few yards. A thought occurred to him, a

around my place to be taken back! I won't hev h

bewilderment. Then old Asa took the seed-bag off his arm and deliberately held i

hout to reap-not if I know m

it as bad as all t

dded h

him. He's got the money, and that means he's got the law and the sheriff on his

one side, and walked to the fence,

there is

ed the old man, advancing towa

nday," answered th

drawers, clear cupboards and shelves, and gather the portable belongings of the household into a heap on the table in the living-room. It was not a l

the spring you must come and be with me in the woods.' The

nodded

at way, and they'll see us through the whole tramp. If you'll see to that, I'll s

can't prevent my bein' an honest man, and I'll go away not beholden to him for a cent. That was one of his chickens that my boy brought me here, when I was sick and

join him in the morning,-turning their backs upon civilization and the haunts of men,-the reserve which through al

up, where he lay wrapped in his blanket, and heard old Asa's voice softly murmuring, whether in

Mose Whipple had chosen his hiding-place, and built for himself a log hut. Thither came to him now, after a toilsome three days' journey,-by creek-bed and steep, boulder-strewn ravine,

took an excited delight, after months of solitude, in this new companionship, and in the splendid r

side of the shanty, putting a new roof of spruce bark on the whole structure

and who stopped at the shanty overnight-left behind him a month-old copy of a New York weekly newspaper. In this paper, after breakfast, old Asa

divide. When they returned, along toward four o'clock, they found awaiting them one

the clearing, and beheld him seated by

g!" Mose exclaimed, and they b

in the face, with a glance which the other dimly recalled as b

all wrong! There ain't been so much as a word dropped sence the boy and me come here, about this thing, and it seemed as if the whole affair had just slipped our mem'ries-but it won't

narrative, without a word. When he had finished he returned his father

ly. "I feel the same as y

instant for fulfilment. Hardly another word was spoken until Mose, his pockets filled fo

along first-rate here by yourselves. Job can take in skins and so on, and a mess of trout now and

little rubber ring which Job had restored to him in Te

a kind of keepsake. Goo

's axe, from where the boy was cutting firewood for the evening on the edge of the clearing. As they fell on the air with their sharp, meta

save that the act of reparation, of at

elf from his reverie with difficulty. He saw that two men with rods, and fishing baskets, and camping packs on their backs, were stand

" the deputy marshal was asking, b

his astonishing apparition. Then

said proudly, "he's gone back to

turn. "Gone!" he

sa, "not an hour ago. He sa

sture of despairing amazement. "Why, man aliv