ng
knife to his; and had he been further able to tell her that he himself,
unaided, had grappled with the enemy, had wrested the knife from the
hand of one, and knocked the loaded pistols from the hands of the
others--then, indeed, he would have felt himself a hero, and the mere
fact of not being able to return the money on the appointed day would
not have signified.

But Tom was truthful, and he had but a lame story to tell.
Nineteen-and-sixpence had been abstracted from the till. Nobody knew how
it had been done, and nobody had the least idea who was the thief. Mrs.
Church, who would have given her niece unlimited time to return the
money had there been a real, proper, bloodthirsty burglary, was not at
all inclined to show mercy when the affair dwindled down into an unknown
thief taking a small sum of money out of the till.

"Why didn't you get it back?" she said. "Why didn't you send for the
police? My word, this is a nice state of things! And me to be out of my
money that I counted upon. Why, Tom, boy, I spend that money on my food,
rent, and the little expenses I have to go to. I made up my mind when I
drew that hundred pounds from my dear husband's hard-earned savings
that, whatever happened, I'd make that sum last me for all expenses for
three years. And I have done it, Tom--I have done it. I am in low water,
Tom. I want the money; I want it just as much as your poor mother does."

"But you have money in the bank, haven't you?"

"That is no affair of yours, Tom Hopkins. Don't talk in that silly way
to me. No, I don't want you to shoo the fowls into the yard, and I don't
mean to give you any plumcake. I shall have to eat it myself, for I have
no money to buy anything else. And I won't show you the beautiful wings
of the beetle in the microscope. You can go home to your mother and tell
her I am very much annoyed indeed."

"But, Aunt Church," said Tom, "if you were to see poor mother you
wouldn't blame her. She looks, oh, so thin and so tired! She's terribly
unhappy, and she will be certain sure to pay you next week. It was silly
of her, I will own, not to think of the police sooner; but she's gone to
them to-day, ordered by me to do that same."

"That was thoughtful enough of you, Tom, and I don't object to giving
you a morsel of the stalest cake. I always keep three cakes in three tin
boxes, and you can have a morsel of the stalest; it is more than two
months old, but you won't mind that."

"Not me," said