id, lifting her little face with the grieved,
astonished look still in the big brown eyes, "and they were touching my
grandpa's things, Polly!"

"I should think they were," said Jasper, running over amongst the few
scattered tools and the lantern, to the windows, where, on the floor,
was a large table cover hastily caught up by the corners, into which a
vast variety of silver, jewelry, and quantities of costly articles were
gathered ready for flight. "They've broken open your safe, father!" he
cried in excitement, "see!"

"And they put up their hand--one man did," went on Phronsie. "And the
other said 'Stop!'--oh, Polly, you hurt me!" she cried, as Polly, unable
to bear the strain any longer, held her so tightly she could hardly
breathe.

"Go on," said Jasper, "how did they look?"

"All black," said the child, pushing back her wavy hair and looking at
him, "very all black, Jasper."

"And their faces, Phronsie?" said Mr. King, getting down on his old
knees on the floor beside her. "Bless me! somebody else ask her, I can't
talk!"

"How did their faces look, Phronsie, dear?" asked Jasper, taking one of
the cold hands in his. "Can't you think?"

"Oh!" said Phronsie--and then she gave a funny little laugh, "two big
holes, Jasper, that's all they had!"

"She means they were masked," whispered Jasper.

"What did you get up for?" Mrs. Whitney asked. "Dear child, what made
you get out of bed?"

"Why, my cushion-pin," said Phronsie looking worried at once. "I
couldn't find it, and--"

But just at this, without a bit of warning, Polly tumbled over in a dead
faint.

And then it was all confusion again.

And so, on the following afternoon, it turned out that the Peppers,
about whose coming there had been so many plans and expectations, just
walked in as if they had always lived there. The greater excitement
completely swallowed up the less!

WHICH TREATS OF A GOOD MANY MATTERS

"Phooh!" said Joel a few mornings after the emptying of the little brown
house into the big one, when he and Van were rehearsing for the fiftieth
time all the points of the eventful night, "phooh! if I'd been here they
wouldn't have got away, I guess!"

"What would you have done?" asked Van, bristling up at this reflection
on their courage, and squaring up to him. "What would you have done,
Joel Pepper?"

"I'd a-pitched right into 'em--like--everything!" said Joel valiantly;
"and a-caught 'em! Yes, every single one of the Bungl