His father said: "No. Hasn"t he come in yet?" and he told her how he had been looking everywhere, and she burst out crying.

"I know he"s fallen into the ca.n.a.l and got drowned, or something," and she wrung her hands together; and then he said that Hen Billard and Archy Hawkins thought Jim Leonard would know, and he had only stopped to see whether Pony had happened to come in, and he was going straight to Jim Leonard"s mother"s house; and Pony"s mother said: "Oh, go, go, go!" and fairly pushed him out of the house.

By this time it was ten o"clock and going on eleven, and all the town was as still as death, except the dogs. Pony"s father kept on until he got down to the river-bank, where Jim Leonard"s mother lived, and he had to knock and knock before he could make anybody hear. At last Jim Leonard"s mother poked her head out of the window and asked who was there, and Pony"s father told her.

He said: "Is Jim at home, Mrs. Leonard?" and she said:

"Yes, and fast asleep three hours ago. What makes you ask?"

Then he had to tell her. "We can"t find Pony, and some of the boys thought Jim might know where he is. I"m sorry to disturb you, Mrs. Leonard.

Good-night," and he went back home.

When he got there he found Pony"s mother about crazy. He said now they must search the house thoroughly; and they went down into the cellar first, because she said she knew Pony had fallen down the stairs and killed himself. But he was not there, and then they hunted through all the rooms and looked under the tables and beds and into the cupboards and closets, and he was not there. Then they went into the wood-house and looked there, and up into the wood-house loft among the old stoves and broken furniture, and he was not there. Trip was there, and he made them think so of Pony that Pony"s mother took on worse than she had yet.

"Now I"m going out to look in the barn," said Pony"s father. "You stay quietly in the house, Lucy."

Trip started to go with Pony"s father, but when he saw that he was going to the barn he was afraid to follow him, Pony had trained him so; and Pony"s father went alone. He shaded the candle that he was carrying with his hand, and when he got into the barn he put it down and stood and looked and tried to think how he should do. It was dangerous to go around among the hay with the candle, and the lantern was gone.

Almost from the first Pony"s father thought that he heard a strange noise like some one sobbing, and then it seemed to him that there was a light up in the loft. He holloed out: "Who"s there?" and then the noise stopped, but the light kept on. Pony"s father holloed out again: "Pony! Is that you, Pony?" and then Pony answered, "Yes," and he began sobbing again.

In less than half a second Pony"s father was up in the loft, and then down again and out of the barn and into the yard with Pony.

His mother was standing at the back door, for she could not bear to stay in the house, and Pony"s father holloed to her: "Here he is, Lucy, safe and sound!" and Pony"s mother holloed back:

"Well, don"t touch him, Henry! Don"t scold the child! Don"t say a word to him! Oh, I could just fall on my knees!"

Pony"s father came along, bringing Pony and the lantern. Pony"s hair and clothes were all stuck full of pieces of hay, and his face was smeared with hay-dust which he had rubbed into it when he was crying. He had got some of Jim Leonard"s mother"s hen"s eggs on him, and he did not smell very well. But his mother did not care how he looked or how he smelled.

She caught him up into her arms and just fairly hugged him into the house, and there she sat down with him in her arms, and kissed his dirty face, and his hair all full of hay-sticks and spider-webs, and cried till it seemed as if she was never going to stop.

She would not let his father say anything to him, but after a while she washed him, and when she got him clean she made him up a bed on the lounge and put him to sleep there where she could see him. She said she was not going to sleep herself that night, but just stay up and realize that they had got Pony safe again.

One thing she did ask him, and that was: "What in the world made you want to sleep in the barn, Pony?" and Pony was ashamed to say he was getting ready to run off. He began:

"Jim Leonard--" and his mother broke out:

"I knew it was some of Jim Leonard"s work!" and she talked against Jim Leonard until Pony fell asleep, and said Pony should never speak to him again.

She and Pony"s father sat up all night talking, and about daybreak he recollected that he had left the candle burning in the barn, and he ran out with all his might to get it before it set the barn on fire. But it had burned out without catching anything, and he was coming back to the house when he met Jim Leonard sneaking towards the barn door. He pounced on him, and caught him by the collar, and he said as savagely as he could: "What are you doing here, Jim?"

Jim Leonard was too scared to speak, and Pony"s father hauled him to the house door, and holloed in to Pony"s mother: "I"ve got Jim Leonard here, Lucy"; and she holloed back:

"Oh, well, take him away, and don"t let me see the dreadful boy!" and Pony"s father said:

"I"ll take him home to his mother, and see what she has to say to him."

All the way down to the river-bank he did not say a word to Jim Leonard, but when they got to Jim Leonard"s mother"s house, there she was with her pipe in her mouth coming out to get chips to kindle the fire with, and she said:

"I"d like to know what you"ve got my boy by the collar for, Mr. Baker?"

Pony"s father said: "I don"t know myself; I"ll let him tell you. Pony was hid in the barn last night, and I just now caught Jim prowling around on the outside. I should like to hear what he wanted."

Jim Leonard did not say anything. His mother gave him one look, and then she went into the house and came out with a table-knife in her hand.

She said, "I reckon I can get him to tell you," and she went to a pear-tree that there was before her house and cut a long sucker from the foot of it. She came up to Jim and then she said: "Tell!"

She did not have to say it twice, and in about half a second he told how Pony had intended to run off and how he put him up to it, and everything.

Pony"s father did not wait to see what Jim Leonard"s mother did to Jim.

When Pony woke in the morning he heard his mother saying: "I could almost think he had bewitched the child."

His father said: "It really seems like a case of mesmeric influence."

Pony was sick for about a week after that. When he got better his father had a very solemn talk with him, and asked why he ever dreamed of running away from his home, where they all loved him so. Pony could not tell. All the things that he used to be so mad about were like nothing to him now, and he was ashamed of them. His father did not try hard to make him tell.

He explained to him what a miserable boy he would have been if he had really got away, and said he hoped his night"s experience in the barn would be a lesson to him.

That was what it turned out to be. But it seemed to be a lesson to his father and mother, too. They let him do more things, and his mother did not baby him so much before the boys. He thought she was trying to be a better mother to him, and, perhaps, she did not baby him so much because now he had a little brother for her to baby instead, that was born about a week after Pony tried to run off.

THE END

BOOKS BY W.D. HOWELLS

Annie Kilburn. 12mo.

April Hopes. 12mo.

Between the Dark and Daylight. New Edition. 12mo.

Boy Life. Ill.u.s.trated. 12mo.

Boy"s Town. Ill.u.s.trated. Post 8vo.

Certain Delightful English Towns. Ill.u.s.trated. 8vo.

Traveller"s Edition, Leather.

Christmas Every Day, and Other Stories. Ill.u.s.trated. 12mo.

Holiday Edition. Ill.u.s.trated. 4to.

Coast of Bohemia. Ill.u.s.trated. 12mo.

Criticism and Fiction. Portrait. 16mo.

Day of Their Wedding. Ill.u.s.trated. 12mo.