Pony said, "Oh, nothing," and his father laughed.

"It seems to be a case of pure affection. What do you talk about
together?"

"Oh, dreams, and magic, and pirates," said Pony.

His father laughed, but his mother said, "I know hell put mischief in the
child's head," and then Pony thought how Jim Leonard always wanted him to
run off, and he felt ashamed; but he did not think that running off was
mischief, or else all the boys would not be wanting to do it, and so he
did not say anything.

His father said, "I don't believe there's any harm in the fellow. He's a
queer chap."

"He's so low down," said Pony's mother.

"Well, he has a chance to rise, then," said Pony's father. "We may all be
hurrahing for him for President some day." Pony could not always tell
when his father was joking, but it seemed to him he must be joking now. "I
don't believe Pony will get any harm from sitting with him in school, at
any rate."

After that Pony's mother did not say anything, but he knew that she had
taken a spite to Jim Leonard, and when he brought him home with him after
school he did not bring him into the woodshed as he did with the other
boys, but took him out to the barn. That got them to playing in the barn
most of the time, and they used to stay in the hay-loft, where Jim Leonard
told Pony the stories out of his books. It was good and warm there, and
now the days were getting chilly towards evenings.

Once, when they were lying in the hay together, Jim Leonard said, all of a
sudden, "I've thought of the very thing, Pony Baker."

Pony asked, "What thing?"

"How to get ready for running off," said Jim Leonard, and at that Pony's
heart went down, but he did not like to show it, and Jim Leonard went on:
"We've got to provision the raft, you know, for maybe we'll catch on an
island and be a week getting to the city. We've got to float with the
current, anyway. Well, now, we can make a hole in the hay here and hide
the provisions till we're ready to go. I say we'd better begin hiding them
right away. Let's see if we can make a place. Get away, Trip."

He was speaking to Pony's dog, that always came out into the barn with him
and stayed below in the carriage-room, whining and yelping till they
helped him up the ladder into the loft. Then he always lay in one corner,
with his tongue out, and looking at them as if he knew what they were
saying. He got up when Jim Leonard bade him, and Jim pulled away the hay
until he got down