"Do you really think he would try to take you if I said to him in a very severe tone that I would have him prosecuted for attempting anything of the kind?"
"I don't believe you could scare him a bit, an' there isn't much chance you'd be able to stop him after he's come so far to find us."
"But I can't have you leave me, Jack," the little woman said in a quavering voice. "You have no idea how much I've been countin' on your company."
"You won't feel half so bad as I shall to go," Jack replied mournfully.
"But it is out of the question to even think of walking all that distance."
"It's got to be done jest the same, an' as soon as my clothes are dried we'll start. Things will come mighty tough; but they can't be helped."
Aunt Nancy looked thoroughly distressed, and there was a suspicious moisture in her eyes as she asked,--
"How would it do to lock the doors, and refuse to come down when he knocked?"
"No, it mustn't be thought of, for then we should be acting a lie, which is almost, if not quite, as bad as telling one."
"How do you make that out?" Jack asked in surprise.
"We shouldn't lock the doors unless it was to give him the impression that there was no one at home, which would be a falsehood."
The expression on Jack's face told that he failed to understand either the argument or the spirit which prompted it, and for several moments no word was spoken.
Then, as a happy thought occurred to him, the boy said eagerly,--
"I'll tell you how it could be done without any lie at all, an' everything would go along as slick as grease."
"How?" Aunt Nancy asked quickly, as a look of relief passed over her face.
"I'll watch up the road a piece till I see the team comin'. Then I'll run back here, get Louis, an' carry him off somewhere."
"Well?" the little woman asked as he paused.
"Why, can't you see how easy it'll be then? You'll only have to tell him you don't know where we are, an' he'll be bound to leave."
"But, Jack dear, I should know where you were."
"You wouldn't leave the farm, an' while I--"
"That's jest what you don't know. I didn't tell you where we'd go. It would be the same thing if we left for New York this minute; you might think we was on the road somewhere; but that wouldn't make it so."