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The road along which Crandall was driving did not lead to Hank’s place, but the river road, which branched off a little farther on, went by the brewery, though it was a longer way around. The men grew silent at last, and the steady roll and rumble of the wagon over the smooth road was soothing, and John laid his head in Lime’s lap and fell asleep while looking at the moon and wondering why it always seemed to go just as fast as the team.

He was awakened by a series of wild yells, the snapping of whips and the furious rush of horses. It was another team filled with harvesters trying to pass, and not succeeding. The fellows in the other wagon hooted and howled and cracked the whip, but Al’s little bays kept them behind until Lime protested, “Oh, let ’em go, Al,” and then with a shout of glee the team went by and left them in a cloud of dust.

“Say, boys,” said Bill, “that was Pat Sheehan and the Nagle boys. They’ve turned off; they’re goin’ down to Hank’s. Let’s go too. Come on, fellers, what d’you say? I’m allfired dry. Ain’t you?”

“I’m willun’,” said Frank Rice; “what d’you say, Lime?” John looked up into Lime’s face and said to him, in a low voice, “Let’s go home; that was Steve a-drivin’.” Lime nodded and made a sign to John to keep still, but John saw his head lift. He had heard and recognized Steve’s voice.

“It was Pat Sheehan, sure,” repeated Bill, “an’ I shouldn’t wonder if the others was the Nagle boys and Eth Cole.”

“Yes, it was Steve,” said Al. “I saw his old hat as he went by.”

It was perfectly intelligible to Lime that they were all anxious to have a meeting between Steve and himself. Johnny saw also that if Lime refused to go to the brewery he would be called a coward. Bill would tell it all over the neighborhood, and his hero would be shamed. At last Lime nodded his head in consent and Al turned off into the river road.

When they drew up at the brewery by the river the other fellows had all entered and the door was shut. There were two or three other teams hitched about under the trees. The men sprang out and Bill danced a jig in anticipation of the fun to follow. “If Steve starts to lam Lime there’ll be a circus.”

As they stood for a moment before the door Al spoke to Lime about Steve’s probable attack. “I ain’t goin’ to hunt around for no row,” replied Lime, placidly, “and I don’t believe Steve is. You lads,” he said to the boys, “watch the team for a little while; cuddle down under the blankets if you git cold. It ain’t no place for you in the inside. We won’t stop long,” he ended, cheerily.

The door opened and let out a dull red light, closed again, and all was still except an occasional burst of laughter and noise of heavy feet within. The scene made an indelible impress upon John, child though he was. Fifty feet away the river sang over its shallows, broad and whitened with foam which gleamed like frosted silver in the brilliant moonlight. The trees were dark and tall about him and loomed overhead against the starlit sky, and the broad high moon threw a thick tracery of shadows on the dusty white road where the horses stood. Only the rhythmic flow of the broad, swift river, with the occasional uneasy movement of the horses under their creaking harnesses or the dull noise of the shouting men within the shanty, was to be heard.

John nestled down into the robes and took to dreaming of the lovely lady he had seen, and wondered if, when he became a man, he should have a wife like her. He was awakened by Frank, who was rousing him to serve a purpose of his own. John was ten and Frank fifteen; he rubbed his sleepy eyes and rose under orders.