ting no one.

Finally he came to a place where the road divided into two forks or
branches, one leading to the right, the other to the left.

"Which shall I take?" he asked himself.

There seemed no choice so far as he could see. Neither was very
promising, nor was there any sign-post to inform him of what he wished
to know.

"I wish somebody would come along," thought Jasper.

But nobody did.

Forced to decide, he decided in favor of the left-hand road, and walked
on.

After a while he began to suspect that he had made a wrong decision. The
road became little more than a lane, and seemed unfrequented. But just
as he was going to turn back he espied at some distance from the road a
rude dwelling, which, from its weather-beaten appearance, seemed never
to have been painted.

"I can find out something there, at any rate," thought Jasper, and he
bent his steps toward it.

Brief time brought him in front of the house. It was certainly a
quiet-looking place.

"It must be dismal to live here," thought Jasper.

He knocked with his fist at the door. On account of the smallness of the
house the knock certainly must have been heard, but there was no
response.

"The people must be deaf," thought Jasper.

He knocked again, this time considerably louder, and waited for some one
to answer his summons.

He waited in vain.

"It must be a deserted house," thought our hero. "I have a great mind to
explore it--that is, if I can get in."

He tried the door, and, a little to his surprise, it yielded to his
touch. The door being in the centre of the house, there was a room on
each side. The door to the left; opened into a room which was quite bare
of furniture. On the other side, however, was a room containing a table
and three chairs. On the table was a dirty clay-pipe and a box of
tobacco, and there was a dead odor of tobacco-smoke lingering in the
closely-shut room.

"That looks as if there were somebody living here," thought Jasper.

"Halloo!" he shouted, raising his voice.

He felt that it would be better to make his presence known, as otherwise
he might be suspected of entering the house with burglarious designs,
though it would have puzzled a burglar to find anything worth
purloining.

"There can't be anybody in the house or I should have been heard,"
thought our hero. "However, I'll call again."

This time there was a faint sound that came to his ears. It seemed like
the voice of a child.

"Where did t