ted to that. If he chose to strain a
point, and drink unstrained milk, he was welcome to do it.

"And if you see fit to save half your dinner, and give it away, I am
willing," said his mother, who was busy, and hardly noticed what Romeo
Augustus asked her. "But you must _not_ soil your jacket fronts as you
do. This is the fifth time within a week I have sponged your clothes."

Soon after this, Philemon and Romeo Augustus were out in the barn,
rolling over and over, burying themselves in the sweet-smelling hay.

Suddenly Philemon pricked up his ears.

"What's that?" quoth he. "I heard a little pig squealing. Where can he
be?"

"Philemon," said Romeo Augustus, earnestly, "let's climb to that top
mow, and jump down. Hurrah! It's a good twenty feet. Come on, if you
dare!"

If he dare! Of course he dared. It was great fun to launch one's self
into space, and come whirling down on the hay. There was just enough
danger of breaking one's neck to give spice to the treat. How Romeo
Augustus did scurry about, hustling Philemon whenever he stopped to
breathe, and urging him on, shouting at the top of his lungs,

"One more jump, old boy. Hurrah! Hurray!"

Philemon had no spare time in which to wonder if he heard a small pig
squeal.

That very night, when all the family was wrapped in slumber, Elias felt
a hand on his shoulder. Another hand was on his mouth, to prevent any
exclamation.

"Come with me," whispered Romeo Augustus; and he held out Elias's jacket
and trousers. Elias took the hint, also the clothes. Down the stairs
crept the two. Out the front door, which would creak, into the moon-lit
yard stole they. Elias's eyes were snapping with excitement; for, as I
said, Elias was poetical, and, like all poets, he was always expecting
something to turn up. At this present he was on the look-out for what he
called "the Gibbage."

Elias himself had grown to believe the marvellous stories he told his
brothers. He had full faith in the Lovely Lily Lady, who lived in the
attic; in the Mealy family, with their sky-blue faces and pea-green
hands, in the cobwebby meal chest under the barn eaves; in the Peely
family, who inhabited the tool-box in the shed, and whose heads were
like baked apples with the peel taken off; in the big black bird, which
came from the closet under the stairs at night, and flew through the
chambers to dust the boys' clothes with its wings.

And now Elias had suspected in his own mind that there existe