CHAPTER I

     "TOM!"

     No answer.

     "TOM!"

     No answer.

     "What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!"

     No answer.

     The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service--she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:

     "Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll--"