e oars, which they put into
the boats; and pushing these out of their hiding-place, they rowed them
into the river, delivering them to Pewee and company, who took them
gratefully. Jack and Columbus had now made their appearance, and as
Pewee got into his boat, he thought to repay Bob's kindness with a
little advice.

"I say, if I was you fellers, you know, I wouldn't stay in that old
cabin a single night."

"Why?" asked Jack.

"Because," said Pewee, "I've heerd tell that it is ha'nted."

"Ghosts aren't anything when you get used to them," said Jack. "We don't
mind them at all."

"Don't you?" said Pewee, who was now rowing against the current.

"No," said Bob, "nor dough-faces, neither."

CHAPTER XIX

THE RETURN HOME

As Mr. Niles's school-term drew to a close, the two boys began to think
of their future.

"I expect to work with my hands, Jack," said Bob; "I haven't got a head
for books, as you have. But I'd like to know a _leetle_ more before I
settle down. I wish I could make enough at something to be able to go to
school next winter."

"If I only had your strength and size, Bob, I'd go to work for somebody
as a farmer. But I have more than myself to look after. I must help
mother after this term is out. I must get something to do, and then
learning will be slow business. They talk about Ben Franklin studying
at night and all that, but it's a little hard on a fellow who hasn't
the constitution of a Franklin. Still, I'm going to have an education,
by hook or crook."

At this point in the conversation, Judge Kane came in. As usual, he said
little, but he got the boys to talk about their own affairs.

"When do you go home?" he asked.

"Next Friday evening, when school is out," said Jack.

"And what are you going to do?" he asked of Bob.

"Get some work this summer, and then try to get another winter of
schooling next year," was the answer.

"What kind of work?"

"Oh, I can farm better than I can do anything else," said Bob. "And I
like it, too."

And then Judge Kane drew from Jack a full account of his affairs, and
particularly of the debt due from Gray, and of his interview with Gray.

"If you could get a few hundred dollars, so as to make your mother feel
easy for a while, living as she does in her own house, you could go to
school next winter."

"Yes, and then I could get on after that, somehow, by myself, I
suppose," said Jack. "But the few hundred dollars is as much out of my
rea