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Page 40
Without more ado, slipping off the Squire's raiment, he donned the
scarecrow's, after carefully shaking out the hay, which, from many
alternate soakings and bakings in rain and sun, had become quite broken
up, and would have been almost dust, were it not for the mildew which
damped it. But sufficient of this wretched old hay remained adhesive to
the inside of the breeches and coat-sleeves, to produce the most
irritating torment.
The grand moral question now came up, what to do with the purse. Would
it be dishonest under the circumstances to appropriate that purse?
Considering the whole matter, and not forgetting that he had not
received from the gentleman deceased the promised reward for his
services as courier, Israel concluded that he might justly use the
money for his own. To which opinion surely no charitable judge will
demur. Besides, what should he do with the purse, if not use it for his
own? It would have been insane to have returned it to the relations.
Such mysterious honesty would have but resulted in his arrest as a
rebel, or rascal. As for the Squire's clothes, handkerchief, and
spectacle-case, they must be put out of sight with all dispatch. So,
going to a morass not remote, Israel sunk them deep down, and heaped
tufts of the rank sod upon them. Then returning to the field of corn,
sat down under the lee of a rock, about a hundred yards from where the
scarecrow had stood, thinking which way he now had best direct his
steps. But his late ramble coming after so long a deprivation of rest,
soon produced effects not so easy to be shaken off, as when reposing
upon the haycock. He felt less anxious too, since changing his apparel.
So before he was aware, he fell into deep sleep.
When he awoke, the sun was well up in the sky. Looking around he saw a
farm-laborer with a pitchfork coming at a distance into view, whose
steps seemed bent in a direction not far from the spot where he lay.
Immediately it struck our adventurer that this man must be familiar with
the scarecrow; perhaps had himself fashioned it. Should he miss it then,
he might make immediate search, and so discover the thief so imprudently
loitering upon the very field of his operations.
Waiting until the man momentarily disappeared in a little hollow, Israel
ran briskly to the identical spot where the scarecrow had stood, where,
standing stiffly erect, pulling the hat well over his face, and
thrusting out his arm, pointed steadfastly towards the Squire's abode,
he awaited the event. Soon the man reappeared in sight, and marching
right on, paused not far from Israel, and gave him an one earnest look,
as if it were his daily wont to satisfy that all was right with the
scarecrow. No sooner was the man departed to a reasonable distance,
than, quitting his post, Israel struck across the fields towards London.
But he had not yet quite quitted the field when it occurred to him to
turn round and see if the man was completely out of sight, when, to his
consternation, he saw the man returning towards him, evidently by his
pace and gesture in unmixed amazement. The man must have turned round to
look before Israel had done so. Frozen to the ground, Israel knew not
what to do; but next moment it struck him that this very motionlessness
was the least hazardous plan in such a strait. Thrusting out his arm
again towards the house, once more he stood stock still, and again
awaited the event.
It so happened that this time, in pointing towards the house, Israel
unavoidably pointed towards the advancing man. Hoping that the
strangeness of this coincidence might, by operating on the man's
superstition, incline him to beat an immediate retreat, Israel kept cool
as he might. But the man proved to be of a braver metal than
anticipated. In passing the spot where the scarecrow had stood, and
perceiving, beyond the possibility of mistake, that by, some
unaccountable agency it had suddenly removed itself to a distance,
instead of being, terrified at this verification of his worst
apprehensions, the man pushed on for Israel, apparently resolved to sift
this mystery to the bottom.
Seeing him now determinately coming, with pitchfork valiantly presented,
Israel, as a last means of practising on the fellow's fears of the
supernatural, suddenly doubled up both fists, presenting them savagely
towards him at a distance of about twenty paces, at the same time
showing his teeth like a skull's, and demoniacally rolling his eyes. The
man paused bewildered, looked all round him, looked at the springing
grain, then across at some trees, then up at the sky, and satisfied at
last by those observations that the world at large had not undergone a
miracle in the last fifteen minutes, resolutely resumed his advance; the
pitchfork, like a boarding-pike, now aimed full at the breast of the
object. Seeing all his stratagems vain, Israel now threw himself into
the original attitude of the scarecrow, and once again stood immovable.
Abating his pace by degrees almost to a mere creep, the man at last came
within three feet of him, and, pausing, gazed amazed into Israel's eyes.
With a stern and terrible expression Israel resolutely returned the
glance, but otherwise remained like a statue, hoping thus to stare his
pursuer out of countenance. At last the man slowly presented one prong
of his fork towards Israel's left eye. Nearer and nearer the sharp point
came, till no longer capable of enduring such a test, Israel took to his
heels with all speed, his tattered coat-tails streaming behind him. With
inveterate purpose the man pursued. Darting blindly on, Israel, leaping
a gate, suddenly found himself in a field where some dozen laborers
were at work, who recognizing the scarecrow--an old acquaintance of
theirs, as it would seem--lifted all their hands as the astounding
apparition swept by, followed by the man with the pitchfork. Soon all
joined in the chase, but Israel proved to have better wind and bottom
than any. Outstripping the whole pack he finally shot out of their sight
in an extensive park, heavily timbered in one quarter. He never saw more
of these people.
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