Auntie met them at the gate, with an anxious face.
"What has happened, children?" she asked, resignedly.
"Nothing, much, auntie," answered Cricket, cheerfully. "We lost the cart-wheel off, that"s all. It was real fun coming home. We left it at the blacksmith"s to get it mended."
"So you"ve begun already," said auntie, laughing, but relieved.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "OLD BILLY TELLS HIS STORY TO THE TWINS"]
CHAPTER III.
CRICKET"S DISCOVERY.
Old Billy sat in the front yard, under a big tree, telling stories to the twins. Perhaps I should say telling _a_ story, for Billy"s range was limited to a single tale, and when he had told this, if any child wanted more, he simply had to tell it over again. It was a story with a moral, and was drawn from Billy"s own experience. It was about a bad little boy, who ate up all his sister"s pep"mint drops. This was the worst of crimes, in Billy"s eyes, for to him pep"mint drops were a sacred possession, not even to be lightly referred to.
"His marmer," went on Billy, impressively, "kep" a-whippin" him, an"
a-whippin" him, but it warn"t no kind o" use, an" didn"t do a mite o"
good. And just think, children," finished Billy, solemnly, "when that bad, naughty, selfish little boy died, he couldn"t go to Heaven and be a good little angel, but he had to go to the Bad Place."
The children listened with wide-open eyes.
"Where is the Bad Place, Billy?" questioned Zaidee, looking interestedly up into Billy"s face.
Billy looked slowly all about him, and above him, and then at the ground, puzzled, now, what to say. He was not very clear, himself. He looked again at the blue sky, flecked with soft, white clouds.
"Wal, I think, children," he said, in his slow way, "that Heaven is up there where all them little bright specks is at night. I guess them"s holes in the floor. Can"t see "em daytimes, you know, when the lights are out, up above. "N" I ruther guess t"other place is down under there, pointing to the ground."
Helen jumped.
"Oh, I don"t want it right under our foots. The ground might crack, Billy, and we"d fall in. _Please_ don"t say it"s there," she begged, earnestly.
But Zaidee immediately began to poke the ground with great interest, and stamp hard upon it.
"Do you really think it"s down there, Billy?" she asked, excitedly. "Oh, Helen, let"s dig and find it! How far down is it, Billy?"
"Wal, now, I dunno as it"s down there at all. Dunno as it is, dunno _as_ it is. Folks say it"s purty hot there."
"I know a nice place to dig, Helen, and that"s the sand-banks. They"re so nice and soft. Let"s go and try it."
But Helen hung back, and Billy said, anxiously, "I wouldn"t. Folks say that Somebody lives there."
"Who?" demanded Zaidee.
"Wal, folks says as Mr. Satan lives round them parts," answered Billy, cautiously.
"Oh, don"t let"s dig, Zaidee, I"m afraid," said timid little Helen, clinging to Zaidee"s hand. "He might not like it, if we finded him."
Zaidee, always more daring than her delicate little twin, did not think so.
""Course we"ll be careful not to bunk right into him," she conceded.
"We"ll dig very slowly when we get pretty near there. Come on, Helen.
Want to come, Billy?"
"Sho, now!" said Billy, looking very unhappy over this unexpected result of his little moral tale. Once, long ago, a mischievous boy-visitor had taken and eaten all Billy"s peppermints, and he never forgot it. He always took occasion to tell it as a story to every little newcomer, to ensure the safety of his valued peppermints, but no one had ever thus applied the story before.
"Seems as if I wouldn"t try, children," he repeated, anxiously. "You might tumble in."
But when Zaidee"s mind was once set on an enterprise, nothing could turn her. She ran away for the shovels and dragged reluctant Helen with her.
They selected a nice hollow place in the sand, and began to dig furiously. In a few minutes they had a hole a foot deep. Zaidee balanced herself on the edge, on her knees, and put her hands down on the bottom of the hole.
"I do think it"s getting hotter, Helen, just feel."
Helen put her hand down, rather fearfully.
"It"s getting _very_ hot, Zaidee, and don"t let"s dig any more."
"Don"t be a "fraid cat," responded Zaidee, promptly. "It"s only a little bit hot. We must dig until it"s ever so much hotter yet," and Zaidee went on throwing up the sand, energetically.
"Oh, dear! how it all slides down the sides. I"ll have to get in it and dig," she said, presently.
"Don"t! don"t!" cried Helen, in great terror, clutching Zaidee with both hands. "Don"t go down there. You might tumble right through any time right on Mr. Satam"s head!"
But Zaidee, unheeding, jumped into the hole, and went on digging, st.u.r.dily, while Helen, frightened and apprehensive, watched her from above. Suddenly she shrieked in new terror:
"Oh, Zaidee! come out! please come out! I see the feathers on his cap sticking right up there! oh, you"ll hit him in a minute, and he"ll jump up!" for "Mr. Satam," and Indian chiefs, with waving plumes, and tomahawks, formed a very confused picture in her mind.
Zaidee scrambled up in a flash.
"Where? Where?" she cried, peering down when safe above. Truly, at the bottom of the hole was seen the top of a feather dropped from a sea-gull"s wing, and buried under the drifting sand, but the startled children never doubted that it was growing fast on the top of "Mr.
Satam"s" head, and they waited in terrified silence for that head to rise and confront them.
Meanwhile, Billy was wandering around in great anguish of soul, not knowing what dreadful thing might happen any moment. He started back to the house at last. Cricket came skipping down the piazza steps.
"See here, young "un," Billy began, eagerly,--he seldom called the children by their names. "I"m afraid suthin" dretful"s goin" to happen."
"What"s the matter, Billy? Why, how your hands shake!"
"Perhaps you can stop "em," went on Billy, hurriedly; "them ere little tikes is a-doin" a dretful thing. They"re over by the sand-bank, a-diggin" fur--h.e.l.l." He brought out this last word in a deep, half-frightened whisper.
"Digging for _what_? Oh, Billy!" and Cricket"s laugh rang out. "You know better than that. Where are they? I"m going to dig a little myself, and they might help me."
Billy looked a little shamefaced at Cricket"s laugh.
"Don"t you think they could get there, then?" he asked, looking relieved. "I don"t really know just where "tis, myself. Didn"t want them little tikes to come to no harm, that"s all."