he effects of fear.

At length Ducklow succeeded in checking the old mare's speed and in
turning her about. It was necessary to drive back for his hat. By this
time he could hear a chorus of shouts, "Fire! fire! fire!" over the
hill. He had aroused the neighbors as he passed, and now they were
flocking to extinguish the flames.

"A false alarm! a false alarm!" said Ducklow, looking marvelously
sheepish, as he met them. "Nothing but Atkins's brush-heap!"

"Seems to me you ought to have found that out 'fore you raised all
creation with your yells!" said one hyperbolical fellow. "You looked
like the Flying Dutchman! This your hat? I thought 'twas a dead cat in
the road. No fire! no fire!"--turning back to his comrades,--"only one
of Ducklow's jokes."

Nevertheless, two or three boys there were who would not be convinced,
but continued to leap up, swing their caps, and scream "Fire!" against
all remonstrance. Ducklow did not wait to enter his explanations, but,
turning the old mare about again, drove home amid the laughter of the
by-standers and the screams of the misguided youngsters. As he
approached the house, he met Taddy rushing wildly up the street.

"Thaddeus! Thaddeus! Where ye goin', Thaddeus?"

"Goin' to the fire!" cried Taddy.

"There isn't any fire, boy."

"Yes, there is! Didn't ye hear 'em? They've been yellin' like fury."

"It's nothin' but Atkins's brush."

"That all?" And Taddy appeared very much disappointed. "I thought there
was goin' to be some fun. I wonder who was such a fool as to yell fire
just for a darned old brush-heap!"

Ducklow did not inform him.

"I've got to drive over to town and get Reuben's trunk. You stand by the
mare while I step in and brush my hat."

Instead of applying himself at once to the restoration of his beaver, he
hastened to the sitting-room, to see that the bonds were safe.

"Heavens and 'arth!" said Ducklow.

The chair, which had been carefully planted in the spot where they were
concealed, had been removed. Three or four tacks had been taken out, and
the carpet pushed from the wall. There was straw scattered about.
Evidently Taddy had been interrupted, in the midst of his ransacking, by
the alarm of fire. Indeed, he was even now creeping into the house to
see what notice Ducklow would take of these evidences of his mischief.

In great trepidation the farmer thrust in his hand here and there, and
groped, until he found the envelope precisely where it had be