be getting to bed."

They were only too glad to speed him on his way. Nobody ever attempted
to stop him, when he was ready to retire. It was the one thing he did
that met with everybody's approval.

His brother went up with him to see that everything had been made ready
for his comfort, and then, bidding him good-night, came back to his
wife.

He smiled at her whimsically, and she smiled back at him tearfully.

"Been a good deal of a siege," he commented.

"Hasn't it?" she agreed. "But, oh, Mansfield, whatever in the world are
we going to do about Teddy?"

He frowned and studied the points of his shoes.

"Blest if I know," he pondered. "The young rascal has been in a lot of
scrapes, but this is the limit. I don't wonder that Aaron feels
irritable. Of course, he rubs it in a little too much, but you'll have
to admit, my dear, that he has a good deal of justice on his side. It
was a mighty reckless thing for Teddy to do.

"I wonder," he went on thoughtfully, "if perhaps we haven't been a bit
too lax in our discipline, Agnes. Too much of the 'velvet glove' and too
little of the 'iron hand,' eh? What do you think?"

"Perhaps--a little," she assented dubiously. Then, defensively, she
added: "But, after all, where do you find better boys anywhere than
ours? Fred scarcely gives us a particle of trouble, and as for
Teddy"--here she floundered a little--"of course, he gets into mischief
at times, but he has a good heart and he's just the dearest boy," she
ended, in a burst of maternal affection.

"How about that boarding school idea?" suggested Mr. Rushton.

"I don't like it at all," said Mrs. Rushton. "I simply can't bear to
think of our boys a hundred miles away from home. I'd be worrying all
the time for fear that something had happened to them or was going to
happen. And think how quiet the house would be with them out of it."

"I know," agreed her husband, "I'd feel a good deal that way myself.
Still, if it's for the boys' good----"

But here they were interrupted by a commotion on the stairs, and as they
rose to their feet, Aaron came bouncing into the room. His coat and vest
and collar and tie were off, but he was too stirred up to bother about
his appearance. He was in a state of great agitation.

"What's the matter?" they asked in chorus.

"Matter enough," snarled Aaron. "I was just getting ready for bed, when
I thought of some papers in the breast pocket of my coat. I just thought
I'd take a last loo