ket, and all. It went that very afternoon; but nobody knew
it till Mrs. Lyman was getting ready to go to the store two days
afterwards, and wanted her pocket to put on.

When she came into the kitchen and said it was not in her bureau drawer,
and when Rachel, who always did the hunting, had looked everywhere and
could not find it, then there was crying in that house, you may be sure.
Patty said at once the beggar girl had taken the pocket.

"But how could she?" said Dorcas. "She was out of sight and hearing
before mother began to quilt it."

"Well, then she came back in the night," sobbed Patty.

"I dare say Snippet has put it out of place," said big brother James.

"Yes, Patty is a great hand to lose things," said Rachel.

"No, no, no; that _niggeramus_ girl came and took it; came in the
night," persisted Patty.

"Patience!" said her mother, reprovingly; and then Patty had to stop.

She mourned only for the silver dollar. She would have mourned for the
gold piece too, if she had known that her mother intended to buy fall
clothes with it for the little girls. It was as well Patty did not know
this, for she had as much already as she could bear.

Priscilla Noonin came over that afternoon with her knitting. "It was
midsummer, and the hay was down," and there were two men helping get it
into the barn. One of the men was tall and well formed, but the other,
Israel Crossman, was so short as to be almost a dwarf. He had yellow and
white hair, was a little lame, and his hands were covered with warts.
After supper he sat a few minutes on the top of the fence whittling a
stick. As Siller Noonin stood knitting at the window she saw him, and
shook her head.

"Somehow or 'nother," said she, "I don't like the looks of that man, and
never did. It's my private opinion, Mrs. Lyman, that either he stole
your pocket or I did."

"Be careful," whispered Mrs. Lyman, "he will hear you."

He might have heard, or might not; but he soon got off the fence and
limped away.

"Israel bears a good character," said Mrs. Lyman; "I will not suspect
him, unless I see better reason than I have ever seen yet."

The loss of the silk pocket continued to be a great mystery. Everybody
hunted for it from garret to cellar; but summer passed, and it did not
come.

Patty's grief wore away by degrees; still she never heard the word
"pocket" or the word "dollar" without a pang. And every time she saw
Mrs. Chase or Mrs. Potter, she could not help w