m the awful personage, who
was evidently coming into the house to see him.

He raised the window a little, intending to throw it wide open, and leap
down upon the lawn, when his persecutor entered the door. There was not
a man or boy at Woodville who could catch him when he had the use of
his legs, and the world would then be open to him. But the gentlemen
paused at the door, and Noddy listened as a criminal would wait to hear
his sentence from the stern judge.

"Thirty thousand dollars is a great deal of money for a boy like him,"
said Mr. Grant. "Of course he must have a guardian."

"And you are the best person in the world for that position," added
Squire Wriggs.

"But he is a young reprobate, and something must be done with him."

"Certainly; he must be taken care of at once."

"I'm afraid he will burn my house down, as he did the boat-house. My
daughter is interested in him; if it wasn't for her, I would send him to
the house of correction before I slept again."

"When you are his guardian, you can do what you think best for him."

"That will be no easy matter."

"We will take the boy over to the court now, and then--"

Noddy did not hear any more, for the two gentlemen entered the house,
and he heard their step on the stairs. But he did not want to know
anything more. Squire Wriggs had distinctly said they would take him
over to the court, and that was enough to satisfy him that his worst
fears were to be realized. The talk about thirty thousand dollars, and
the guardian, was as unintelligible to him as though it had been in
ancient Greek, and he did not bestow a second thought upon it. The "boy
like him," to whom thirty thousand dollars would be a great deal of
money, meant some other person than himself. The court was Noddy's
peculiar abomination; and when he heard the words, he clutched the sash
of the window with convulsive energy.

Mr. Grant and Squire Wriggs passed into the house, and Noddy Newman
passed out. To a gymnast of his wiry experience, the feat was not
impossible, or even very difficult. Swinging out of the window, he
placed his feet on the window-cap below, and then, stooping down, he got
hold with his hands, and slipped down from his perch with about the same
ease with which a well-trained monkey would have accomplished the
descent.

He was on the solid earth now, and with the feeling that the court-house
and a whole regiment of constables were behind him, he took to his
heels. A s