y of such temptations as he gets here. An' when they once begin that
way as boys, you never know where they'll end. No, no; I wish Adam and
the boy were home."

Poor Mrs. Yorke! She had, indeed, too much reason to dread the after
results of "once beginning that way;" for Theodore seemed likely to
follow in the footsteps of his good-for-nothing father.

Uncle Rutherford, of course, heard of the peanut episode, and expressed
a fitting censure on Theodore's conduct, both to our family and to the
boy himself; but we said among ourselves, that he not only appeared to
endorse, but to enjoy, Jim's swift, passionate punishment of Theodore,
and he escaped with a very slight reproof, if, indeed, the few words he
said to him concerning the matter could be called reproof; and Milly
felt no fear that he had lost ground with uncle Rutherford.

Fortunately the captain, knowing little or nothing of the streets, was
given, when by himself, to haunting our neighborhood and the park
opposite; so that he came much under the notice and patronage of the
friendly policeman, whose daily beat was in that quarter, and who kept
him on many an occasion from going astray, or making a spectacle of
himself.

The captain had sought out Rob Stevens, insisted that he should tell
him just how many times he had seen Theodore steal peanuts from Matty,
and, so far as he could judge, to what amount each time; then counting
up what he supposed them to be worth, which he put at an enormously
high valuation--the honest old man!--that he might be sure to err on
the right side, he forced Theodore to go with him to the stand, and pay
Matty for the stolen fruit. He endeavored, too, to make him apologize
to Jim, both for the theft of his property, and also for his
contemptible meanness in keeping silent on the occasion of Jim's attack
on the playground. But here he was powerless: Theodore absolutely and
doggedly refused to do it; and his grandfather was obliged to content
himself with relieving his own feelings, and further expressing his
sentiments on the boy's conduct, by giving him a severe flogging.

Spring was upon us now; an early, mild, and beautiful spring. Day after
day of sunny delicious weather succeeded one another; the children came
home from their walks or drives in the Central Park, in ecstasies over
the robins, blue-birds, and squirrels they had seen. In the woods at
Oaklands,--whither father went once or twice a week to have an eye upon
his imp