"Never mind," said John; "you are both big enough to go bareheaded. What
will you take for your caps?" and again he laughed at their predicament.

"What shall we do?" inquired Frank.

"Go to his house and get the caps, of course," said Nat. "The caps won't
come to us that is certain."

"What will you tell the man?"

"Tell him the truth," replied Nat, "and it ought to get our caps, and
shield us from punishment."

"Perhaps he is a crabbed fellow who will show us no favors; and he will
say that our running away is evidence of our guilt."

"We were fools to run," said Nat; "and if I had stopped to think one
moment I should have stayed there, and explained it to him."

Finally, it was decided that Nat and Frank should go after their caps,
on which errand they started at once, while John and Charlie proceeded
homeward. In the mean time the owner of the tree had reached his house
very much amused at the flight of the capless boys. He was somewhat
angry when he first saw the boys in his tree, but the possession of the
two caps well filled with cherries modified his wrath considerably. It
would take him two hours to pick that quantity of fruit. "Surely," he
thought, "the boys have beaten the bush and I have caught the birds."

"You must go to the door and explain it," said Frank to Nat.

"I am going to, and convince him that we did did not mean to steal."

Nat gave a gentle rap at the door, to which a lady at once responded.

"Can we see the man who has our caps?" inquired Nat.

"I will see," she replied very kindly, and stepped back into the house
to call her husband. He made his appearance promptly; and looked so much
more pleasant than Nat expected, that he was very much emboldened.

"What is wanted, boys?" he asked.

"We have come," replied Nat, "to tell how it happened that we got your
cherries, and to get our caps."

"I suppose it happened very much as it does every year with those
cherries," said the man,--"the boys steal them."

"No, sir; I think I can convince you that we did not mean to steal. We
thought they were wild cherries. John came along and told us about them,
and we did not believe they were wild. Finally we consented to go and
see, and when we got to the tree, we told him that the owner of such
nice cherries would want them, and I told him that the best way would be
to come and ask you, for if you did not want them, you would certainly
give us permission to pick them. But he laughed at u