d the man, as he
wiped the perspiration off his grimy face.

"Randa said it was, and I 'in surprised she made a fire there," began
Mrs. Moss, looking at the maid, who just then came in with a pan full of
soot.

"Bless you, ma'am, I never thought of such a thing, nor Katy neither.
That naughty Bab must have done it, and so don't dar'st to show
herself," answered the irate Randa, whose nice room was in a mess.

"Where is the child?" asked her mother; and a hunt was immediately
instituted by Betty and Sancho, while the elders cleared up.

Anxious Betty searched high and low, called and cried, but all in vain;
and was about to sit down in despair, when Sancho made a bolt into his
new kennel and brought out a shoe with a foot in it while a doleful
squeal came from the straw within.

"Oh, Bab, how could you do it? Ma was frightened dreadfully," said
Betty, gently tugging at the striped leg, as Sancho poked his head in
for another shoe.

"Is it all burnt up?" demanded a smothered voice from the recesses of
the kennel.

"Only pieces of the roof. Ben and his father put it out, and I helped,"
answered Betty, cheering up a little as she recalled her noble
exertions.

"What do they do to folks who set houses afire?" asked the voice again.

"I don't know; but you needn't be afraid, there isn't much harm done, I
guess, and Miss Celia will forgive you, she's so good."

"Thorny won't; he calls me a 'botheration,' and I guess I am," mourned
the unseen culprit, with sincere contrition.

"I'll ask him; he is always good to me. They will be here pretty soon,
so you'd better come out and be made tidy," suggested the comforter.

"I never can come out, for every one will hate me," sobbed Bab among the
straw, as she pulled in her foot, as if retiring for ever from an
outraged world.

"Ma won't, she's too busy cleaning up; so it's a good time to come.
Let's run home, wash our hands, and be all nice when they see us. I'll
love you, no matter what anybody else does," said Betty, consoling the
poor little sinner, and proposing the sort of repentance most likely to
find favor in the eyes of the agitated elders.

"P'raps I'd better go home, for Sanch will want his bed," and Bab gladly
availed herself of that excuse to back out of her refuge, a very
crumpled, dusty young lady, with a dejected face and much straw sticking
in her hair.

Betty led her sadly away, for she still protested that she never should
dare to meet the offen