ell asleep.

But, meanwhile, the acute Barney, sitting by his side and apparently
engrossed with his white mice, had been attentively observing the same
scene. Unfortunately, whenever the old gentleman dipped his pen
absently in the ink Barney's quick eye was attracted to a small object
which glittered brightly, and presently he made out that this was a
silver inkstand. The more he looked, the more his fingers longed to
close round that shining object and make sure if it really could be
silver, and I grieve to say that it was not from pressing necessity that
he coveted it, but simply from a strong desire to exercise an inborn
talent. It was as natural to him to steal, particularly if it required
cleverness and ingenuity, as it is for an artist or a poet to paint or
write poetry, so all the while he looked, his mind was busy with a plan
to rob the old gentleman of his silver inkstand.

Presently he glanced round at Frank, whose head was nodding forward in
an uncomfortable attitude, and whose deep breathing showed him to be
asleep. "If only he warn't sich a duffer," said Barney to himself, "we
might do it easy," then seeing that his partner was in danger of
falling, he moved nearer to him, and placed the boy's head gently
against his own shoulder so that he might rest easily. Meanwhile the
old gentleman's pen went scribbling on at quite a furious pace, and the
black skull-cap seemed to nod complacently, as though its owner were
pleased with what he wrote.

Barney sat and waited with the sleeping boy's head on his shoulder--
waited patiently, without stirring a muscle, though after a time the
stiff position became painful. Shadows were lengthening--the cows
sauntered through the village to be milked--it began to get a little
dusk, but still the old gentleman went on writing and Frank went on
sleeping, and Barney's bright glance was fixed on the shining object
opposite, much as a raven or a jackdaw will eye the silver spoon he
means to steal by and by. "Everything comes to him who knows how to
wait," and though Barney had never heard the proverb it was now verified
in his case; the old gentleman paused in his writing, stuck his pen
absently behind his ear, and proceeded to read over his manuscript. It
pleased him evidently, for he smiled several times, and shook his head
waggishly. Then he got up, yawned, stretched himself, and finally left
the room, but only to reappear a moment later in the porch: thence he
st