.

"Cider!" cried Mr. Cane exultantly. "Have you been drinking _cider_?"

"A lu--lu--little."

"Where did you boys get cider?"

"Mu--mu--made it."

"Made it!" Mr. Cane could not believe his ears. "Made it? How could you
boys make cider?"

The process was soon explained. But Mr. Cane was still in doubt. It
seemed incredible that a little sweet cider could bring about such
disastrous results.

"How much did you drink?" he asked at length.

"Just a lu--lu--little."

"But what was the sugar for?" Mrs. Cane persisted.

"Why, whu--when we made the cider it was swu--swu--sweet; but when we
went to du--du--drink it, it was su--su--sour! So we put the
shu--shu--sugar in it!"

"When did you make it?" asked his father.

"About tu--tu--two weeks ago--"

"T-w-o w-e-e-k-s!" gasped Mr. Cane as he fell across the bed in a state
of total collapse. "Two weeks!--And hot weather at that!"

The telephone rang. Mr. Cane answered.

"Hello!" he called. "That you, doctor?"

"----"

"Stomach pump? No, I guess not. They're about half-full of tepid
soapsuds just now, and they seem to be doing very well without any pump
at all."

Then Mr. Cane listened for a long time chuckling softly. At last he
said:

"Well, don't operate, doctor! I've found your poison!"

"----"

"Hard cider!"

CHAPTER XXII

A SECOND-HAND WAR BABY

Sube Cane had never heard life defined as just one certain kind of thing
after another, but he knew that it was so; for so he had found it. And,
when, a few days after the final performance of Ten Knights in a
Barroom, he had turned the house upside down hunting for his Wild West
hat only to learn that his mother had given it away a few days before,
he felt the tragedy of existence as never before.

"Gave it away!" he gasped in stricken tones. "What'd you do that for?"

"Why, I had no idea that you wanted it," she replied; "it was always
lying around in the way. You never wore it, and besides, it had a great
hole through it."

Sube scowled. "Who'd you give it to?" he asked peevishly, with an insane
idea of getting it back.

"To some women who were soliciting for the destitute Belgians," she
answered. "You ought to be very glad to help such a worthy cause."

"What were their names?"

"I'm sure I don't know. They were representatives of the Red Cross
Society who had come all the way down from Rochester."

And Sube went out of the house wronged and brooding, and threw himself
down on t