his consternation, he saw the man returning towards him, evidently by his pace and gesture in unmixed amazement.  The man must have turned round to look before Israel had done so.  Frozen to the ground, Israel knew not what to do; but next moment it struck him that this very motionlessness was the least hazardous plan in such a strait.  Thrusting out his arm again towards the house, once more he stood stock still, and again awaited the event.

It so happened that this time, in pointing towards the house, Israel unavoidably pointed towards the advancing man.  Hoping that the strangeness of this coincidence might, by operating on the man’s superstition, incline him to beat an immediate retreat, Israel kept cool as he might.  But the man proved to be of a braver metal than anticipated.  In passing the spot where the scarecrow had stood, and perceiving, beyond the possibility of mistake, that by, some unaccountable agency it had suddenly removed itself to a distance, instead of being, terrified at this verification of his worst apprehensions, the man pushed on for Israel, apparently resolved to sift this mystery to the bottom.

Seeing him now determinately coming, with pitchfork valiantly presented, Israel, as a last means of practising on the fellow’s fears of the supernatural, suddenly doubled up both fists, presenting them savagely towards him at a distance of about twenty paces, at the same time showing his teeth like a skull’s, and demoniacally rolling his eyes.  The man paused bewildered, looked all round him, looked at the springing grain, then across at some trees, then up at the sky, and satisfied at last by those observations that the world at large had not undergone a miracle in the last fifteen minutes, resolutely resumed his advance; the pitchfork, like a boarding-pike, now aimed full at the breast of the object.  Seeing all his stratagems vain, Israel now threw himself into the original attitude of the scarecrow, and once again stood immovable.  Abating his pace by degrees almost to a mere creep, the man at last came within three feet of him, and, pausing, gazed amazed into Israel’s eyes.  With a stern and terrible expression Israel resolutely returned the glance, but otherwise remained like a statue, hoping thus to stare his pursuer out of countenance.  At last the man slowly presented one prong of his fork towards Israel’s left eye.  Nearer and nearer the sharp point came, till no longer capable of enduring such a test, Israel took to his heels with all speed, his tattered coat-tails streaming behind him.  With inveterate purpose the man pursued.  Darting blindly on, Israel, leaping a gate, suddenly found himself in a field where some dozen laborers were at work, who recognizing the scarecrow—­an old acquaintance of theirs, as it would seem—­lifted all their hands as the astounding apparition swept by, followed by the man with the pitchfork.  Soon all joined in the chase, but Israel proved to have better wind and bottom than any.  Outstripping the whole pack he finally shot out of their sight in an extensive park, heavily timbered in one quarter.  He never saw more of these people.