I think father and Laddie sat beside Leon all night.The others went to sleep.A little after daybreak,just as Laddie was starting to feed,there was an awful clamour,and here came a lot of neighbours with Even So.Mr.Freshett had found him asleep in a cattle hole in the straw stack,and searched him,and he had more money,and that made Mr.Freshett sure;and as he was very strong,and had been for years a soldier,and really loved to fight,he marched poor Even So back to our house.Every few rods they met more men out searching who came with them,until there were so many,our front yard and the road were crowded.Of all the sights you ever saw,Even So looked the worst.You could see that he'd drop over at much more.Those men kept crying they were going to hang him;but mother went out and talked to them,and said they mustn't kill a man for taking only money.She told them how little it was worth compared with other things;she had Candace bring Even So a cup of hot coffee,lots of bread,and sausage from the skillet,and she said it was our money,and our lad,and we wanted nothing done about it.The men didn't like it,but the traveller did.He grabbed and gobbled like a beast at the hot food and cried,and mother said she forgave him,and to let him go.
Then Mr.Freshett looked awful disappointed,and he came up to father,with his back toward mother,and asked:"That's your say too,Mr.Stanton?"Father grinned sort of rueful-like,but he said to give Even So his money and let him go.He told all about getting ours back,and having had him at the house once before.
He brought the money Leon took from him,but the men said no doubt he had stolen that,and Leon had earned it bringing him back,so the traveller shouldn't have it.They took him away on a horse and said they'd let him go,but that they'd escort him from the county.Father told Mr.Freshett that he was a little suspicious of them,and he would hold him responsible for the man's life.Mr.Freshett said that he'd give his word that the man would be safe;they only wanted to make sure he wouldn't come back,and that he'd be careful in the future how he abused hospitality,so they went,and all of us were glad of it.
I don't know what Mr.Freshett calls safe,for they took Even So to Groveville and locked him up until night.Then they led him to the railroad,and made him crawl back and forth through an old engine beside the track,until he was blacker than any negro ever born;and then they had him swallow a big dose of croton oil for his health.That was the only KIND thing they did,for afterward they started him down the track and told him to run,and all of them shot at his feet as he went.Hannah Freshett told me at school the next day.Her father said Even So just howled,and flew up in the air,and ducked,and dodged and ran like he'd never walked a step,or was a bit tired.We made a game of it,and after that one of the boys was Even So,and the others were the mob,and the one who could howl nicest,jump highest,and go fastest,could be "It"oftenest.
Leon grew all right faster than you would think.He went to school day after next,and the boys were sick with envy.They asked and asked,but Leon wouldn't tell much.He didn't seem to like to talk about it,and he wouldn't play the game or even watch us.He talked a blue streak about the money.Father was going to write to every sheriff of the counties along the way the man said he had come,and if he could find no one before spring who had been robbed,he said Leon might do what he liked with the money.I used to pretend it was coming to me,and each day I thought of a new way to spend it.Leon was so sure he'd get it he marched right over and asked Mr.Pryor about a nice young thoroughbred horse,from his stables,and when he came back he could get a coltlike one so very cheap that father and Laddie looked at each other and gasped,and never said a word.They figured up,and if Leon got the money,he could have the horse,and save some for college,and from the start he never changed a mite about those two things he wanted to do with it.He had the horse picked out and went to the field to feed and pet it and make it gentle,so he could ride bareback,and mother said he would be almost sick if the owner of the money turned up.
Pulling his boots one night,father said so too,and that the thoughts of it worried him.He said Mr.Pryor had shaded his price so that if the money had to go,he would be tempted to see if we couldn't manage it ourselves.I don't know how shading the price of a horse would make her feel better,but it did,and maybe Leon is going to get it.
