ONE MYSTERY SOLVED.
"Well, I'll be jiggered!" exclaimed Jack. "What _can_ be the matter? It
beats me. I----"
"Hey you, git out of thar. I don't know what of critter ye be, but you
scared my old man nigh ter death. Scat now, er I'll shoot!"
Jack looked up toward an upper window of the farm-house, from which the
voice, a high-pitched, feminine one, had proceeded. An old lady, with a
determined face, stood framed in the embrasure. In her hands, and
pointed straight at the mystified Jack, she held an ancient but
murderous looking blunderbuss.
"It's loaded with slugs an' screws, an' brass tacks," pleasantly
observed the old lady. "Jerushiah!" this to someone within the room,
"stop that whimperin'. I'm goin' ter send it on its way, ghost or no
ghost."
"But, madam----" stammered Jack.
"Don't madam me," was the angry reply. "Git now, and git quick!"
"This is like a bad dream," murmured Jack, but there was no choice for
him but to turn and go; "maybe it is a dream. If it is I wish I could
wake up."
He turned into the hot, dusty road once more. He felt faint and hungry.
His mouth was dry, and he suffered from thirst, too. Before long he
found a chance to slake this latter. A cool, clear stream, spanned by a
rustic bridge, appeared as he trudged round a bend in the road.
"Ah, that looks good to me," thought Jack, and he hurried down the bank
as fast as he could.
He bent over the stream at a place where an eddy made an almost still
pool, as clear as crystal. But no sooner did his face approach the water
than he gave a violent start. A hideous black countenance gazed up at
him. Then, suddenly, Jack broke into a roar of laughter.
"Jerusalem! No wonder everybody was scared at me when I scare myself!"
he exclaimed. "It's the soot from that chimney. Just think, it never
occurred to me why they were all so alarmed at my appearance. Why, I'd
make a locomotive shy off the track if it saw me coming along."
It did not take Jack long to clean up, and, while his face was still
grimy when he had finished, it was not, at least, such a startling
looking countenance as he had presented to those from whom he sought to
find his way back to Musky Bay.
"Now that I look more presentable I guess I'll try and get some
breakfast," thought the boy as, his thirst appeased, he scrambled up the
bank again.
About half a mile farther along the road was the queerest-looking house
Jack had ever seen. It was circular in form, and looked like three giant
cheese-boxes, perched one on the top of the other, with the smallest at
the top.
"Well, whoever lives there must be a crank," thought Jack; "but still,
since I've money to pay for my breakfast, even a crank won't drive me
away, I guess."
A man was sawing wood in the back yard and to him Jack addressed
himself.
"I'd like to know if I can buy a meal here?" he said.
"No, you can't fry no eel here," said the man, and went on sawing.
"I didn't say anything about frying eels. I said 'Can I get a meal?'"
shouted Jack, who now saw that the man was somewhat deaf.
"Don't see it makes no difference to you how I feel," rejoined the man.
"I'm hungry. I want to eat. I can pay," bellowed Jack.
"What's that about yer feet?" asked the deaf man.
"Not feet--eat--E-A-T. I want to eat," fairly yelled Jack.
"What do you mean by calling me a beat?" angrily rejoined the deaf man.
"I didn't. Oh, Great Scott, everything is going wrong to-day," cried
Jack. Then he cupped his hands and fairly screeched in the man's ear.
"Can I buy a meal here?"
A light of understanding broke over the other's face.
"Surely you can," he said. "Araminta--that's my wife--'ull fix up a bite
fer yer. Why didn't you say what you wanted in the fust place?"
"I did," howled Jack, crimson in the face by this time; "but you didn't
hear me. You are deaf."
"Wa'al, I may be a _little_ hard o' hearing, young feller," admitted the
man, "but I hain't deef by a dum sight."
Jack didn't argue the point, but followed him to the house, where a
pleasant-faced woman soon prepared a piping hot breakfast. As he ate and
drank, Jack inquired the way to Musky Bay.
"It ain't far," the woman told him, "five miles or so."
"Can I get anyone to drive me back there?" asked Jack, who was pretty
well tired out by this time.
"Oh, yes; Abner will drive you over fer a couple of dollars."
She hurried out to tell her husband to hitch up. Jack could hear her
shouting her directions in the yard.
"All right. No need uv speaking so loud. I kin hear ye," Jack could hear
the deaf man shouting back. "I kin hear ye."
"Just think," said the woman when she came back into the kitchen, where
Jack had eaten, "Abner won't admit he's deef one bit. At church on
Sundays he listens to the sermon just as if he understood it. If anyone
asks him what it was about, he'll tell 'um that he doesn't care to
discuss the new minister, but he's not such a powerful exhorter as the
old one. He's mighty artful, is Abner."
The rig was soon ready and Jack was on his homeward way. To his
annoyance, Abner proved very talkative and required answers to all his
remarks.
"Gracious, I'll have no lungs left if I have to shout this way all the
way home," thought Jack. "It'll be Husky Bay. If ever I drive with Abner
again, I'll bring along some cough lozenges."
"Must be pretty tough to be really, down-right deef," remarked Abner,
after Jack had roared out answers to him for a mile and a half.
"It must be," yelled Jack.
"Yes, sir-ee," rejoined Abner, wagging his head. "I'm just a trifle that
er-way, and it bothers me quite a bit sometimes, 'specially in damp
weather. Gid-ap!"