of the
mean pranks those village boys play on those who live outside. Tell him
all he wants to hear, Darry; but unless you can swear to it perhaps
you'd better not say that you think it was Jim Dilks and his crowd. If
you feel sure, go ahead," she remarked, for with all her temper Mrs.
Peake was a woman with a due sense of caution.

The constable knocked, and in response to her call to "come in," he
entered.

"I heard ye had a little shindig up to here last night, Mrs. Peake, an'
I jest called 'round to see what it is all 'bout," said Hank, seating
himself. "I see thar was a fire here all right, an' it kim near burning
yer buildings down in the bargain. Some says as how it was sot by a
passel o' boys. How 'bout that, ma'am?"

"I didn't see anyone," answered the woman. "When I got out Darry here
had the fire pretty well under control, and I only helped him finish.
You can ask him about it, Mr. Squires."

Darry had already learned through the grocer that previous to her
marriage to Abner the good woman had been for some years a teacher in
the schools, which fact accounted for her superior language and
knowledge of things that were far above the intelligence of most of her
neighbors.

The constable looked keenly at our hero.

"I b'lieve this is the boy wot was saved from the wreck o' that
brigantine. So he's gwine to be your boy now, Mrs. Peake? Well, I
understand he's got the makin' o' a man in him, so Mr. Keeler sez to me
last night, and I hope you'll never have no reason to be sorry. I want
to know, Darry, what about this here fire?"

"I'll be only too glad to tell you all I know, sir," replied the boy
promptly.

"When did it happen?" began the constable, with the air of a famous
lawyer, with a bewildered witness on the rack.

"I think it was somewhere near midnight. I have no watch, and Mrs. Peake
took the little clock in her room with her."

"That was near the time. It was half-past one when I went back to my bed
with my two little girls," remarked the owner of the house.

"S'pose you tell me what happened, jest as it comes to you, lad."

With this invitation Darry soon related the whole matter, even to his
firing after the vanishing culprits.

This latter event appeared to interest the constable more than anything
else.

"Do you think you hit any o' 'em?" he asked, eagerly.

"They didn't stop to tell me, but I heard a lot of howling, and they ran
faster than ever," replied Darry, smiling.

"Tha