Page:Peterruggmissing00austrich.djvu/31

Rh increase,' said Rugg with a fearful oath, ' ''I will see home to-night in spite of the last tempest! or may I never see home'' '. At these words he gave his whip to his high spirited horse, and disappeared in a moment. But Peter Rugg did not reach home that night, nor the next; nor, when he became a missing man, could he ever be traced beyond Mr. Cutter's in Menotomy. For a long time after, on every dark and stormy night, the wife of Peter Rugg would fancy she heard the crack of a whip, and the fleet tread of a horse, and the rattling of a carriage, passing her door. The neighbors too, heard the same noises, and some said they knew it was Rugg's horse; the tread on the pavement was perfectly familiar to them. This occurred so often, that at length the neighbors watched with lanterns, and saw the real Peter Rugg, with his horse and chair, and child sitting beside him, pass directly before his own door, his head turned towards his house, and himself making every effort to stop his horse, but in vain. The next day, the friends of Mrs. Rugg exerted themselves to find her husband and child. They inquired at every public house and stable in