lf and his mother, abuse and even personal
violence. As he afterwards explained it, he saw a storm brewing, and,
like a prudent sailor, he had prepared for it, or prepared to avert it,
by taking the jug down to the steamboat wharf and dropping it upon the
rocks below, where the rising tide soon covered the pieces, and for a
time concealed the evidences of the deed.

"What have you done with it, you villain?" repeated the angry head of
the family, looking first at the boy and then at his wife.

"I haven't seen it, and didn't know you had any jug," replied Mrs.
Taylor.

"Don't lie to me about it," stormed Ezekiel. "You can't fool me. I left
that jug in the wood-shed, and 'tain't there now. It couldn't have gone
off without any help."

"I haven't touched it," repeated Mrs. Taylor.

"Yes, you have; you know you have," added the tippler, demonstrating
with a clinched fist towards her.

"I tell you I haven't seen it."

"I say you have," said Ezekiel, shaking his fist in her face; "you know
you have; and if you don't tell me what you've done with it, it'll go
hard with you."

"She hasn't seen it, and don't know anything at all about it,"
interposed Robert, in order to turn the wrath of the inebriate from his
mother.

"Then _you_ do, you villain," said Ezekiel, turning sharply upon the
youth.

The boy did not make any reply.

"What have you done with it?" cried the angry cooper.

"Mother knows nothing at all about it; she hasn't touched it, and didn't
know there was any jug there."

Mrs. Taylor suspended work and looked earnestly at the boy. She
understood by his manner that he had removed the jug, and she dreaded
the consequences of her husband's wrath. Ezekiel continued to repeat his
question in his drunken frenzy, and to demonstrate violently with his
fist at the youth. He turned again upon his wife, and accused her of
being a party to the removal of the jug; but Robert's only object seemed
to be to shield her from his wrath.

"I tell you again she don't know anything at all about it," said he, at
last. "I did the business myself; and that jug has gone up. It won't
hold any more rum."

"What did you do with it, you villain?" gasped Ezekiel.

"I dropped it off the railroad wharf upon the rocks; and there isn't a
piece left of it big enough to stop a mouse hole."

"You did--did you?"

"I did," added Robert, desperately, as he braced himself to brave the
consequences of his bold deed.

"What business