Moses laughed, too, as he was glad to do. He had had enough of gloom and
grumble for that sweet Lord's Day, now so near its close. And though the
story he was going to tell was anything but a bright one, he meant to
tell it in such wise that his young listener should be the tenderer and
more compassionate because of hearing it.

"Well, Keehoty, it's ruther a long yarn. That is, it goes a good way
back, clean to the old Squire's time--no such a Squire as Pettijohn,
forename James, mind ye--but a good, high-sprung, old-fashioned
gentleman; with high-up English blood in his veins, an' a reg'lar
English temper to balance the blood. Never did a dirty trick in his life
nor an unjust one--except to his own and only son. That was Monty's
father, poor little stutterin' shaver! Well, along of his late years the
old Squire had bad feelin's in his head, suffered terr'ble agony, an'
hardly knowed what he did do or say. He got a notion that he was goin'
to be robbed, an' used to carry 'round with him a cur'ous old box that
folks said held his bonds an' money an' the old family jewels that had
been brought over from England a hunderd years afore. If he went
a-ridin'--an' he was the splendidest horseman ever seen in these
parts--he'd have the thing on the saddle afore him. If he druv, 'twould
be in the box o' the carriage-seat. Nobody ever seen the inside that
box, an' 'twas 'lowed there wasn't none could open it, except him an'
the Madam."

"Oh!" gasped Katharine, leaning forward, breathlessly intent. Naturally
such close attention flattered the narrator, who went on with renewed
earnestness:

"The old Squire an' his son didn't hit it off together very well. Never
did from the time Verplanck, 'Planck he was called for short, was born.
He was a good deal like Monty is, only more oneasy--if anybody could be;
an' from the time he could toddle he was hand in glove with Jim
Pettijohn's little tacker, Nate. Nate, he wasn't so smart as some folks.
Not a fool, uther, an' consid'able better'n half-witted, but
queer--queer. He just worshipped Planck Sturtevant, an' where you see
one you see t'other, sure. Well, they growed up, an' Planck got married.
That seemed to 'bout break Nate's heart, an' he got queerer an' queerer.
Old Squire got queerer, too. Nothin' Verplanck could do or say was right
in his father's eyes; an' though he managed to work the farm fairly
well, he never made any money off it, an' that made the old man mad.
Planck, he b