"Father, he come down here one day, after blackberries, when he was a boy.

He hearn a noise in there, an' went an' peeked in, an' there was the ol' Cap'n pokin' about with his big stick in the dirt.

He looked up an' saw father, an' came at him with his stick up, roarin' like a mad bull, father said.

An' he cut an' run, father did, an' he hearn the ol' Cap'n laughin' after him as if he'd have a fit.

Crazy as a loon, I reckon the Cap'n was, though none of his folks thought so, Ma says." He let the wild briers fly back about the gloomy opening, and they stepped back on the smooth greensward again.