eavy and you're not going straight home, but
I'll bring them to you day after to-morrow, when I shall be goin' your
way."

"'Now, then,' said my father, 'the trick I'm thinkin' of playing on
Williamson is this: I'd like to take that box of instruments out of his
room without his knowing it and carry them home, having the boat here
convenient; and then in a day or two to write to him and tell him I must
have 'em, because I have a special use for 'em. Of course he'll be
awfully cut up, not having them to send back; and when he comes down to
my place to talk about it, and after hearing all he has to say, I'll
show him the box. He'll be the most dumbfoundedest man in this State;
and if I don't choose to tell him he'll never know to his dying day how
I got that box. And if he lies awake at night, trying to think how I got
it, it will serve him right for keeping my property from me so long.'

"'But, father,' said I, 'if the people have gone to bed you can't get
into the house to play him your trick.'

"'That can be managed,' says he; 'I'm rather old for climbing myself,
but I know a way by which you, Thomas, can get in easy enough. At the
back of the house is a trellis with a grape-vine running over it, and
the top of it is just under one of the second-story windows. You can
climb up that trellis, Thomas, and lift up that window-sash very
carefully, so's not to make no noise, and get in. Then you'll be in a
back room, with a door right in front of you which opens into Mr. and
Mrs. Green's bedroom. There's always a little night lamp burning in it,
by which you can see to get about. In the corner, on your right as you
go into the room, is a table with my instrument-box standing on it. The
box is pretty heavy, and there is a handle on top to carry it by. You
needn't be afraid to go in, for by this time they are both sound asleep,
and you can pick up the box and walk out as gingerly as a cat, having of
course taken your shoes off before you went in. Then you can hand the
box out the back window to me,--I can climb up high enough to reach
it,--and you can scuttle down, and we'll be off, having the best rig on
Williamson Green that I ever heard of in my born days.'

"I was a very active boy, used to climbing and all that sort of thing,
and I had no doubt that I could easily get into the house; but I did not
fancy my father's scheme.

"'Suppose,' I said, 'that Mr. Williamson Green should wake up and see
me; what could I say? Ho