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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
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