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Soldier Jack!
Part II.
"Yes," the man told him, "that house has been ha'nted for thirty or
forty years. There can't nobody stay there overnight. I've promised several
fellers that if they'd stay all night up there I'd deem 'em the house and
a thousand acres and give 'em a thou- sand dollars, but there ain't nobody
ever broke the ha'nt yet."
"I'll try it," says Jack. "I'll stay there all night."
Well, that man took him up on it and they got some grub torJacr to eat
while he stayed there, and the man took Jack on to the house and holp him
build up a fire and then left him there. Jack sat down by the fire and
got out his pipe and smoked awhile. Then he fixed his supper and eat it
and lit up his pipe again and sat right on tendin' his fire ever' now and
then and a-waitin'. Well, it got up 'way on in the night, and about midnight
Jack heard a great roar and somethin' knockin' around upstairs and wheels
a-rollin' and chains a-rattlin', and then three little devils came jumpin'
down the stair steps. Jack sat right on. The little devils had some sacks
of money with 'em and they came over to the fire and com- menced banterin'
Jack for a poker game. Jack didn't have no money except that change from
the ho-tel, but he sat down and invested it, and got to winnin' off the
little devils. They lost ever' time, and started tryin' to peep and see
Jack's hole card, but he was slick and played close to the floor, and it
wasn't long till he cleaned 'em out. Then they got mad and went to fussin'
at Jack and threatenin' him with great swoards, and so Jack picked up that
sack and held it open, says,
"Whickety Whack!
Into my sack!"
and all three of them little devils scrouged right down in the sack.
Jack pulled the mouth of the sack to and tied it, put it in one corner
and then he laid down by the fire and went to sleep.
Next mornin' the man came back, and there was Jack cookin' his breakfast.
Jack told him what happened and showed him the sack full of devils, so
that man deeded Jack the house and the thousand acres and paid him a thousand
dollars, and then they took the little devils down to the blacksmith shop
and hired the blacksmith to sledge 'em for twenty-four hours. "I want you
to lay the hammer to 'em," Jack told him. So he did that, and it was a
sight how the sparks flew. There wasn't a thing but ashes in Jack's sack
when that blacksmith got done. So Jack paid him and took the sack on home
and put it up on the fireboard.
Well, Jack fixed up the house and hired boys to help him tend the land
and he lived on there by himself and took it sort of easy. He was gettin'
to be an old man, Jack was, and he didn't work too hard. He enjoyed lookin'
after ever'thing and makin' little improve-meets around his place; but
he had plenty of money, so he hired most of the heavy work done and lived
right on there and saw to it that the boys made the crops pay pretty well.
Then one day word came down in that settle-ment that the King's girl
was down sick and all the doctors were lookin' for her to die. They said
she couldn't be cured, so the King had all the doctors' heads cut off.
Then the King he put out word that anybody could cure his girl, he'd pay
'em several thousand dollars.
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