"If I was only strong enough I'd soon show them fellers what it is to pick on a fellow they thought couldn't help himself!"
He had hardly said these words when a man brushed past him with the air of one who feels he has a right to considerably more than half the road, and looking up quickly Jack saw Farmer Pratt.
For an instant he thought the man was pursuing him, and would have taken refuge in flight, had not the idea occurred to his mind that Mr. Pratt had come to camp meeting for the same purpose as Aunt Nancy.
"I'm foolish to think he's still chasin' after me," he said to himself, "though I s'pose he would take Louis an' me with him if he saw us."
Without knowing why he did it, Jack followed a short distance behind the farmer, as if it was necessary to retain him constantly in sight, and while doing so thought of Aunt Nancy's distress concerning the alleged lie.
Now surely would be a good time to sacrifice his own comfort in order to ease her mind by taking upon his shoulders the blame, and he ran forward intending, for an instant, to speak with the gentleman.
Then it occurred to him that it would be proper to consult the little woman first, and he turned back only to doubt again.
It might distress Aunt Nancy yet more to know the farmer was on the grounds, and Jack wished he knew of some one who could give him the proper advice.
Deacon Downs was the only person he could think of, and yet he ought not to tell him of what Aunt Nancy had done.
"I've got to settle this thing myself," he said as he turned resolutely in the direction of the tent, "and the next thing to do is to talk with Aunt Nancy herself. She knows more goodness than all these people put together."
His mind once made up, he was eager to reach the tent, and ran at full speed, arriving just as Deacon Downs summoned the occupants of this particular dwelling to dinner.
The little woman was acting as cook, a post of duty to which she had been elected each year because the remainder of the party knew she would perform the arduous labors without complaint.
To speak with her now would be to attract the attention of all, and Jack believed he should wait until a more convenient season.
Therefore he seated himself at the rough table around which all the others, save Aunt Nancy, were gathered, and tried unsuccessfully to appear as if nothing unusual had occurred.