needs a guardian," he said. "But he hasn't one; he is
his own man and has a right to his property."

With hot tears of resentment grandmother, accompanied by Theodora, went
to the wagon-house cellar to get the book. After some minutes they
returned, exclaiming that they could not find it!

No little stir ensued; what had become of it? For the moment Addison and
I actually suspected that grandmother and Theodora had hidden the book
again, in order to avoid sending it; but a few words with Theodora,
aside, convinced us that the book had really disappeared from the
cellar.

The old Squire was greatly disturbed. "Ruth," he said to grandmother,
"are you sure you have not put it somewhere else?"

Grandmother declared that she had not. None the less, they searched in
all the previous hiding places of the book and continued looking for it
until after ten o'clock that night. We were in a very uncomfortable
position.

Long after we had gone to bed Addison and I lay awake, talking of it in
low tones; we tried to recollect everything that had gone on at home
since the book was last seen. I dropped asleep at last, and probably
slept for two hours or more, when Addison shook me gently.

"Sh!" he whispered. "Don't speak. Some one is going downstairs."

Listening, I heard a stair creak, as if under a stealthy tread. Addison
slipped softly out of bed, and I followed him. Hastily donning some
clothes, we went into the hall on tiptoe and descended the stairs. The
door from the hall to the sitting-room was open, and also the door to
the kitchen. It was not a dark night; and without striking a light we
went out through the wood-house to the wagon-house, for we felt sure
that some one was astir out there. Just then we heard the outer door of
the wagon-house move very slowly and, stealing forward, discovered that
it was open about a foot. Still on tiptoe we drew near and were just in
time to see a person go out of sight down the lane that led to the road.

"Now who can that be?" Addison whispered. "Looks like a woman,
bareheaded."

We followed cautiously, and at the gate caught another glimpse of the
mysterious pedestrian some distance down the road. We were quite sure
now that it was a woman. We kept her in sight as far as the schoolhouse;
there she opened the door--the schoolhouse was rarely locked by night or
day--and disappeared inside.

Opposite the schoolhouse was a little copse of chokecherry bushes, and
we stepped in among