his mouth opened and shut like a
frog's in a drought, the action producing no sound.

'What have we got here--a tin box--the box of boxes? Why, I'll carry it
for 'ee, uncle!--I am going home.'

'N-no-no, thanky, Festus: it is n-n-not heavy at all, thanky,' gasped the
squireen.

'O but I must,' said Festus, pulling at the box.

'Don't let him have it, Bob!' screamed the excited Anne through the hole
in the floor.

'No, don't let him!' cried the uncle. ''Tis a plot--there's a woman at
the window waiting to help him!'

Anne's eyes flew to the window, and she saw Matilda's face pressed
against the pane.

Bob, though he did not know whence Anne's command proceeded obeyed with
alacrity, pulled the box from the two relatives, and placed it on the
table beside him.

'Now, look here, hearties; what's the meaning o' this?' he said.

'He's trying to rob me of all I possess!' cried the old man. 'My heart-
strings seem as if they were going crack, crack, crack!'

At this instant the miller in his shirt-sleeves entered the room, having
got thus far in his undressing when he heard the noise. Bob and Festus
turned to him to explain; and when the latter had had his say Bob added,
'Well, all I know is that this box'--here he stretched out his hand to
lay it upon the lid for emphasis. But as nothing but thin air met his
fingers where the box had been, he turned, and found that the box was
gone, Uncle Benjy having vanished also.

Festus, with an imprecation, hastened to the door, but though the night
was not dark Farmer Derriman and his burden were nowhere to be seen. On
the bridge Festus joined a shadowy female form, and they went along the
road together, followed for some distance by Bob, lest they should meet
with and harm the old man. But the precaution was unnecessary: nowhere
on the road was there any sign of Farmer Derriman, or of the box that
belonged to him. When Bob re-entered the house Anne and Mrs. Loveday had
joined the miller downstairs, and then for the first time he learnt who
had been the heroine of Festus's lamentable story, with many other
particulars of that yeoman's history which he had never before known. Bob
swore that he would not speak to the traitor again, and the family
retired.

The escape of old Mr. Derriman from the annoyances of his nephew not only
held good for that night, but for next day, and for ever. Just after
dawn on the following morning a labouring man, who was going to his w