ther fellow up; he had got away for that time, and they
ran out into the rain again to let it wash off the dust and chaff, which
they had got all over them in their search. The rain felt so good and cool
that they stood still and took it without playing any more, and talked
quietly. Dave decided that the fellow who had given them the slip was a
new boy whose folks had come into the neighborhood since school had let
out in the spring, so that he had not got acquainted yet; but Dave allowed
that he would teach him a few tricks as good as his own when he got at
him.

The storm left a solid bank of clouds in the east for a while after it was
all blue in the western half of the sky, and a rainbow came out against
the clouds. It looked so firm and thick that Dave said you could cut it
with a scythe. It seemed to come solidly down to the ground in the woods
in front of the hay-mow window, and the boys said it would be easy to get
the crock of gold at the end of it if they were only in the woods. "I'll
bet that feller's helpin' himself," said Dave, and they began to wonder
how many dollars a crock of gold was worth, anyhow; they decided about a
million. Then they wondered how much of a crock full of gold a boy could
get into his pockets; and they all laughed when Jake said he reckoned it
would depend upon the size of the crock. "I don't believe that fellow
could carry much of it away if he hain't got more on than he had in front
of the barn." That put Frank in mind of the puzzle about the three men
that found a treasure in the road when they were travelling together: the
blind man saw it, and the man without arms picked it up, and the naked man
put it in his pocket. It was the first time Dave had heard the puzzle, and
he asked, "Well, what's the answer?" But before Frank could tell him, Jake
started up and pointed to the end of the rainbow, where it seemed to go
into the ground against the woods.

"Oh! look! look!" he panted out, and they all looked, but no one could see
anything except Jake. It made him mad. "Why, you must be blind!" he
shouted, and he kept pointing. "Don't you see him? There, there! Oh, now,
the rainbow's going out, and you can't see him any more. He's gone into
the woods again. Well, I don't know what your eyes are good for, anyway."

He tried to tell them what he had seen; he could only make out that it
must be the same boy, but now he had his clothes on: white linen
pantaloons and roundabout, like what yo