"It was. I shouldn't think you'd said such a thing, Harriet."
"Of course it's stealing," said Daniel, soberly.
"Here you've been stealing," scolded Eliza; "and your bucket's gone, and
Jonathan is all scratched up with blackberry vines. I don't know what
mother'll say."
She took Jonathan out of his wagon and hushed him, and then they had a
consultation as to what was best to be done. Mirandy related, with
tearful breaks, the story of her well-filled bucket and its mysterious
disappearance.
"Of course Cap'n Moseby was watching out there with his gun and took
it," said Daniel.
It was finally agreed that they would all go in a body to Cap'n
Moseby's, and try to recover Mirandy's bucket, that she might not have
to face her mother without it. When they reached the Moseby house the
doors were closed and the windows looked blank. They knocked as loudly
as they dared, and there was not a sound in response. They looked at one
another.
"S'pose he ain't at home?" whispered Harriet.
"Dan'l, you pound on the door again," said Eliza.
And Daniel pounded. Abijah pounded, too, and Eliza herself rattled away
on one panel, with her freckled face screwed up, but nobody came.
"If he's there, he won't come to the door," said Daniel.
Suddenly the silence within the house was broken. Then came a volley of
quick barks, and the children all fell back in a panic, and scurried
into the road.
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