he injured man lay in a white bed. He was much
better now, and the constable did not go along, since he was not to be
arrested, as what he had done had been when he was out of his head
through a war injury.

"Frank!" cried Mrs. Benton, as soon as she caught sight of the man.

"Susan!" he murmured, holding out his arms. And then such a happy
reunion as there was. "My, how big the children have become!" exclaimed
Mr. Benton, through his glad tears. "To think I saw them in the room
with the Curlytops and didn't know them."

"And they didn't know you," said his wife. "But now we have each other!
Oh, how happy I am. This will be the best Christmas in all the world!"

And it was--for every one at Uncle Toby's cabin.

There is not much more to tell. The mystery was all cleared up. Mr.
Benton had been wounded in the war, an injury to his brain making him
out of his head, though not dangerously so. He wandered away, escaping
from one hospital after another under the mistaken notion that the
doctors and nurses were trying to harm him.

In his wanderings he finally reached the neighborhood of Crystal Lake.
He found the old deserted cabin and made his home there, living on what
he could pick up or take from the farmhouses. Thus the rumor of tramps
and burglars was talked of at the lake. Poor Mr. Benton was so timid
that he ran away when Uncle Toby came to draw water.

It was Mr. Benton who took Aunt Sallie's plum pudding from the pantry,
though he did not know he was stealing. And it was he who looked in the
window, thus frightening Janet. And, as he said, he had found Skyrocket
wandering in the woods. There was a loose board on one side of the
cabin, a board Uncle Toby had forgotten about, and Skyrocket got out
through that hole the night he disappeared. After getting him to the
lonely cabin Mr. Benton became so fond of the dog that he tied him up.
Though Skyrocket might have remained of his own accord, for he had made
friends with the wounded soldier.

It was while strolling about the streets of the village that the father
of Mary and Harry saw Trouble wandering out of the five and ten cent
store. Always fond of children, Mr. Benton made friends with William,
and Trouble took a liking to the strange man.

Then, somehow or other, the idea of taking Trouble to the lonely cabin
came into the head of the man, and he got a ride out in the sled of a
strange farmer. But once in the deserted shack Trouble became frightened
and