g
the wonderful purchase. He had not yet fully given up the idea of a new
drum, although the image, which vaguely shaped itself in his mind, of
Mr. Ducklow "tucking it down his boot-leg," presented difficulties.

"This is the bond, you see," Mr. Ducklow explained; "and all these
little things that fill out the sheet are the cowpons. You have only to
cut off one o' these, take it to the bank when it is due, and draw the
interest on it in gold!"

"But suppose you lose the bonds?" queried Mrs. Ducklow, regarding, not
without awe, the destructible paper representatives of so much property.

"That's what I've been thinkin' of; that's what's made me so narvous. I
supposed 't would be like so much railroad stock, good for nothin' to
nobody but the owner, and somethin' that could be replaced, if I lost
it. But the man to the bank said no,--'t was like so much currency, and
I must look out for it. That's what filled all the bushes with robbers
as I come along the road. And I tell ye, 't was a relief to feel I'd got
safe home at last; though I don't see now how we're to keep the plaguy
things so we sha'n't feel uneasy about 'em."

"Nor I neither!" exclaimed Mrs. Ducklow, turning pale. "Suppose the
house should take fire! or burglars should break in! I don't wonder you
was so particular about the matches! Dear me! I shall be frightened to
death! I'd no idee 't was to be such dangerous property! I shall be
thinking of fires and burglars!--O-h-h-h!"

The terrified woman uttered a wild scream; for just then a door flew
suddenly open, and there burst into the room a frightful object, making
a headlong plunge at the precious papers. Mr. Ducklow sprang back
against the table set for his supper with a force that made everything
jar. Then he sprang forward again, instinctively reaching to grasp and
save from plunder the coupon bonds. But by this time both he and his
wife had become aware of the nature of the intrusion.

"Thaddeus!" ejaculated the lady. "How came you here? Get up! Give an
account of yourself!"

Taddy, whose abrupt appearance in the room had been altogether
involuntary, was quite innocent of any predatory designs. Leaning
forward farther and farther, in the ardor of discovery, he had, when too
late to save himself, experienced the phenomenon of losing his balance,
and pitched from the stairway into the kitchen with a violence that
threw the door back against the wall with a bang, and laid him out, a
sprawling figure