The boys roamed about the fields, talking in this manner, until after
sunset, when Thomas said it was time to return. They crossed into a bye
path, and walked toward the house through a field in which wheat had
been growing. Among the short straw, left by the reapers, Samuel saw
many birds' nests, and deep holes that had been dug by rabbits, field
mice, and other small animals. In a short time they passed a very old
house, whose sides appeared as if they would fall every moment. The roof
was covered with moss and grass, and the boards had crumbled and
separated from each other; a number of bats and swallows were flying
about it, and Thomas said that dozens of these little animals, beside
rats and mice, lived inside. Samuel asked him if any body lived there.
"No," said his cousin; "but father remembers very well when an old
soldier, that the farmers called Jack, did live in this house. His
leg had been shot off in battles with the Indians. After it healed he
moved to this place, and lived on the vegetables he could raise in a
little garden, besides what people gave him. Every night he came out and
sat on the log by the door, playing on an old fiddle. Then the school
children would collect around him, and give him pennies, or fruit, and
such things. Sometimes he told them stories; for he had travelled in
many lands, and knew a great deal about them. In the summer nights,
father says, he often heard poor old Jack singing the songs that he had
learned when he was a boy; and sometimes he could be seen hobbling down
this lane, on his crutches, or sitting by the water catching some fish
for his supper. One day he was missed, and folks thought he was sick;
but they waited till the next morning, and then a great crowd collected
round the house, and called him. No one answered; so some one lifted the
latch and went in. Old Jack was not there, and the people began to get
frightened. They hunted for him all that day, and many days afterward;
but he was never found. Some think that he was drowned; others that he
went away with strangers, and a few are foolish enough to believe, that