bled upon it in the
dark and overslept out of sheer physical weariness. It was up in one of
the old choir pews in the high gallery they had wakened--or Jot had
wakened--to the strains of the beautiful hymn his mother loved.

The whole explanation was simple enough when it was explained. Kent and
Jot worked it out slowly in their own minds.

Meanwhile Old Tilly slept on, and the sermon came to an end. There was
another hymn and then the benediction. The people dispersed slowly, and
once more the big house was deserted.

Then Jot woke Old Tilly. "I say," he cried, "I say, old fellow, wake
up!"

"Yes, I'm coming in a minute!" muttered Old Tilly.

"You'll be late for church," remarked Kent dryly, with a wink at Jot.

Old Tilly stirred and rose on his elbow. Then he gave a bewildered look
around him.

"You're in church. Didn't you promise mother you'd take us to church?"

"Yes."

"But you slept all through the service," said Kent, "and I shall tell
mother so!"

"Kent Eddy, what are you trying to get at? How did we get here,
anyhow?" said Old Tilly, rising cautiously; and then, as he looked down
on the empty room below, standing to his full height, he said. "Well, if
I ever!" a laugh breaking through his white teeth. "I should say we had
been in church!" he added. "Why didn't you fellows wake me up? What
did the folks think?"

"Oh, they only saw the two good boys sitting on the seat facing them!
We didn't say we had another one smuggled in under beside us. But my!
You did rap the seat awfully once with your elbow!"

"Well, I know one thing: my shoulder aches from lying on that narrow
seat so long," said Old Tilly. "I say, let's go down to the wheels and
the grub. I'm half starved!"

"All right," said Kent in rather a subdued way. The morning service had
stolen pleasingly through him, and somehow it seemed to the little lad
as though their ship had been guided into a wonderfully quiet harbor.
And now he followed his brothers down the narrow stairs that they had so
innocently groped their way up in darkness the night before. The three
had agreed to leave the church and partake of the lunch that was in the
baskets on the wheels, but now they found doing so not as easy of
accomplishment as they had at first thought. When they tried the outer
door they found to their dismay that it was locked. Old Tilly would not
believe Kent, and he pushed the latter's hand off the door knob rather
impatiently. "