I should like to see them. I've been so long away from Greenbank that
even a yellow dog from there would be welcome."

CHAPTER XVIII

GHOSTS

Jack and Bob had to amuse Columbus with stories, to divert his mind from
the notion that Pewee and his party meant them some harm. The Indian
burying-ground was not an uncommon place of resort on Sundays for
loafers and idlers, and now and then parties came from as far as
Greenbank, to have the pleasure of a ride and the amusement of digging
up Indian relics from the cemetery on the hill. This hill-top commanded
a view of the Ohio River for many miles in both directions, and of the
Kentucky River, which emptied into the Ohio just opposite. I do not know
whether the people who can find amusement in digging up bones and
throwing them down-hill enjoy scenery or not, but I have heard it urged
that even some dumb animals, as horses, enjoy a landscape; and I once
knew a large dog, in Switzerland, who would sit enchanted for a long
time on the brink of a mountain cliff, gazing off at the lake below. It
is only fair to suppose, therefore, that even these idle diggers in
Indian mounds had some pleasure in looking from a hill-top; at any rate,
they were fond of frequenting this one. Pewee, and Riley, and Ben Berry,
and two or three others of the same feather, had come down on this
Sunday to see the Indian Mound and to find any other sport that might
lie in their reach. When they had dug up and thrown away down the steep
hill-side enough bones to satisfy their jackal proclivities, they began
to cast about them for some more exciting diversion. As there were no
water-melon patches nor orchards to be robbed at this season of the
year, they decided to have an egg-supper, and then to wait for the moon
to rise after midnight before starting to row and cordelle their two
boats up the river again to Greenbank. The fun of an egg-supper to
Pewee's party consisted not so much in the eggs as in the manner of
getting them. Every nest in Judge Kane's chicken-house was rummaged that
night, and Mrs. Kane found next day that all the nest-eggs were gone,
and that one of her young hens was missing also.

About dark, little Allen Mackay, a round-bodied, plump-faced, jolly
fellow who lived near the place where the skiffs were landed, and who
had spent the afternoon at the Indian Mound, came to the door of the old
log-house.

"I wanted to say that you fellows have always done the right thing by
m