Vacation vanished. School opened. Another year of education loomed up before Sube like an impassable mountain. The weather began to give hints of an approaching winter. Except on rare occasions the evenings were spent indoors. These occasions were usually devoted to attendance at the opera where the Kings and Queens of Filmdom could be seen for the trifling sum of five cents or the one-half part of a dime. And always--with one exception--these evenings at the movies were the result of earnest solicitation on the part of the boys. The exception was noted on a certain Friday evening when Mrs. Cane had planned to open her parlors for a lecture of the Mothers' Club. As the Cane family was about to rise from the supper table on that memorable evening, Mrs. Cane announced that she had arranged a pleasant surprise for the boys. Whereupon she distributed largess to the extent of a nickel apiece and told them that as an experiment she had decided to permit them to go just this once unattended to the Theatorium. If she had let them remain at home they would have paid scant attention to the Mothers' Club; but the moment she showed a desire to be rid of their presence she aroused Sube's suspicions. "What don't you want us round home for?" he asked as he pocketed his nickel. "Oh, it isn't that I don't want you here, dears," she replied; "but I knew this dry old lecture wouldn't interest you at all." But Sube was not so easily disposed of. "What's it about?" he asked casually. "Nothing that you would care to hear--the proper discipline of children or something of that sort," returned his mother hurriedly. "Run along now, boys; mother's very busy. You may stay to see the pictures through twice if you'll be very quiet and behave like gentlemen. And Henry, you take good care of Sim. Remember he's a little boy--" Before starting for the Theatorium, Sube slipped out in the back yard and made a thorough though futile search for evidences of ice-cream. But for some reason this did not satisfy him; when once his suspicions were aroused it was very difficult to allay them. All through the first show he was pondering over his mother's unprecedented conduct. He felt sure there was some ulterior motive. During the intermission Sube announced that he was going to try the seats further back. "I know I can't see so good," he explained, "but my neck kinda hurts from bending it up so far." "My neck don't hurt," declared Cathead. "I'll stay here." "My neck don't hurt," echoed Sim. "I'll stay here too."