--why, I do believe it's a real cute little shaver,"
continued the woman hesitatingly.

"Fine little fellow, I should say, though I'm no judge," continued Mr.
Crossleigh.

"And it isn't crying a bit. Do you suppose it's a foundling, left on our
stoop, as we sometimes read of in the papers, Henry?"

"That's just what it is, of course. Folks don't leave small children
around for a joke, wife."

"And have we got to take it in and keep it?"

"The law doesn't compel us to."

"But--Henry----"

"What is it, wife?"

"Do you suppose--we've never had any children. Do you think we
could----"

"We can do whatever you say, wife," nodded

[Illustration: "Is This the Brother You're Looking For?"]

Mr. Crossleigh. "If you say that you want to----"

Here he came to a pause. The new idea was so wholly strange that he
couldn't grasp it all at once.

Here Hoof Sadby, straining his ears from the distance, judged that it
was high time for him to use his slice of onion. Then his doleful voice
was heard as he came wailing along.

"Why, who's that out there?" cried Mrs. Crossleigh.

"Say, have you got my baby brother!" demanded Hoof, halting at the
gateway, then running forward for a minute. "Some fellers----

"Is this the brother you're looking for?" asked Mr. Crossleigh, stepping
toward Hoof, basket in hand.

"Yes!" snapped Hoof, giving a pretended gulp of joy. But, truth to tell,
he felt so ashamed of himself that he was a poor actor at this moment.
Had the Crossleighs been more suspicious they would have detected
something sham in Hoof's beginning grief and his swift change to joy.

"Oh, thank you, sir," awkwardly sobbed Hoof, taking the basket. "I know
the fellows that did this to me. They think this is a good Hallowe'en
joke."

"I'm glad, boy, that you didn't have a longer hunt," remarked Mr.
Crossleigh. "Good night!"

Then Hoof and the peepers across the way saw Mr. Crossleigh throw an arm
around his wife's waist and draw her into the house, closing the door.

"Say, who said they were cranks?" demanded Greg Holmes, when the abashed
Hallowe'eners had gathered a little way down the street. "Why, those
folks would have been only too glad to take the little shaver in
and----"

"Adopt it," supplied Dan Dalzell.

Truth to tell, Dick and all the Grammar School boys had seen the
beginning of a scene that made their joke look small.

"If I ever catch any fellow trying to sneak the Crossleigh's gate,"
warned Dave l