ck to-morrow afternoon."

"Now, look here, Joe, this ain't right to let Dan Fernald drive you off.
Where'll we find another place like this?"

"I don't reckon we ever can; but it's got to be done. I'd be 'shamed
enough to die if Dan should settle hisself down here, after we've
brought the princess. That would make four of us for aunt Dorcas to
feed, an' we know she has 'bout all she can do to pay her own bills. It
seemed pretty tough when you an' I come; but I said to myself it was
only for two or three weeks, an' we could patch it up somehow, after we
got back to town."

"But Dan's a fool!" Master Plummer cried, excitedly. "It's no dead sure
thing aunt Dorcas will take him in same's she has us, even if you do go
away."

"But he thinks she will, so it 'mounts to the same thing."

"Where are you goin'?"

"I don't know," Joe replied, mournfully. "Perhaps it'll be better to go
straight to town, an' let 'em arrest me. Aunt Dorcas will tell me what's
best, an' I shall do as she says."

"You ain't goin' to talk to her to-night?"

"No, Plums, I'm countin' on holdin' out till to-morrow mornin', an'
enjoyin' myself all I can, 'cause it ain't no ways likely I'll ever have
the chance of stoppin' again in sich a place as this."

Master Plummer was silent for a moment, and then a different aspect of
the case presented itself to him.

"Why, what's goin' to become of me?" he cried. "I don't believe aunt
Dorcas'll keep me after you leave, an' what'll I do?"

"If I let the lawyers get hold of me, that'll ease up on you, 'cause I'm
the only one they'd want to arrest, an' you can go back to town."

"Yes, perhaps I can; but I'll hate to, mightily. That shanty of mine
won't seem half so nice, after we've lived here, an' I'll have to go to
work sellin' papers!"

Master Plummer was now so absorbed in the contemplation of his own
unfortunate position as to be wholly unable to sympathise with his
friend, and the two sat on the greensward just outside aunt Dorcas's
door, in painful silence.

CHAPTER XII.

A STRUGGLE IN THE NIGHT.

During the remainder of this day it appeared to Joe and Plums as if they
were abandoned by the little woman who had hitherto treated them with so
much attention.

Immediately after Joe arrived with his charge, aunt Dorcas and the
princess disappeared inside the house, and neither of them seemed to
desire the companionship of the boys until, at an unusually late hour,
they were summoned to