red his mother sent him
on an errand which should have been done an hour before.

Dan felt more lonely than ever after this new-made friend had gone,
and, with Crippy in his arms, he started wearily out in search of uncle
Robert, hardly knowing where he was going. In his bewilderment he had
walked entirely around the same block four times, and an observant
policeman asked him where he was going.

Under the circumstances Dan did not require much urging to induce him to
tell the man his story.

"Do you know your uncle's name?" asked the officer.

"Uncle Robert Hardy."

"What is his business--I mean, what kind of work does he do?"

"He keeps store."

The officer led Dan to the nearest drug store, and there, after
consulting the directory, told him there were several Robert Hardys
mentioned, at the same time giving him a list of the names.

Dan took the paper with the written directions upon it, feeling more
completely at a loss to know how to proceed than he had before, and it
was in a dazed way that he listened to the instructions as to how he
should find the nearest Hardy.

But he started bravely off, still carrying Crippy, who seemed to have
doubled in weight, and when he had walked half an hour in the direction
pointed out by the policeman, he appeared to be no nearer his
destination than when he started.

"What can we do, Crippy?" he cried, as again he took refuge on a
doorstep, weary, hungry and foot-sore. He had seen no opportunity to buy
a breakfast with his six cents; it was then long past his usual time for
dinner, and his hunger did not tend to make him more cheerful.

The goose was as unable to answer this question as he had been the ones
Dan had previously asked, and the only reply he made was a loud
cackling, which, in his language, signified that he thought it quite
time that he had some dinner.

By this time, and Dan had not been on the doorstep more than five
minutes, a crowd of boys gathered around, all disposed to make sport of
the goose, and to annoy the boy.

"Say, country, why don't you sell your goose?"

"Where did the bird find you?"

"Does yer mother know you're so far away from home?"

These and other equally annoying questions Dan listened to until he
could no longer control himself, and he cried to his tormentors:

"See here, boys, if you had somethin' you thought a good deal of, an'
it was goin' to be killed an' roasted for dinner, what would you do?"

The boys were too m