"Hem! well!" (It was evident that the Beswick was clearing her decks for action.) "When the right time come! yes! That right time wasn't somethin' indefinite, in the fur futur', of course! Yer losin' the bonds didn't hurry up yer benevolence the least grain, I s'pose! Hem! let in them boys, Sophrony!" Sophronia opened the door, and in walked Master Dick Atkins, (son of the brush-burner,) followed, not without reluctance and concern, by Master Taddy. "Thaddeus! what you here for?" demanded the adopted parents. "Because I said so," remarked Miss Beswick, arbitrarily. "Step along, boys, step along. Hold up yer head, Taddy, for ye a'n't goin' to be hurt while I'm around. Take yer fists out o' yer eyes, and stop blubberin'. Mr. Ducklow, that boy knows somethin' about Reuben's cowpon bonds." "Thaddeus!" ejaculated both Ducklows at once, "did you touch them bonds?" "Didn't know what they was!" whimpered Taddy. "Did you take them?" And the female Ducklow grasped his shoulder. "Hands off, if you please!" remarked Miss Beswick, with frightfully gleaming courtesy. "I told him, if he'd be a good boy, and come along with Richard, and tell the truth, he shouldn't be hurt. _If_ you please," she repeated, with a majestic nod; and Mrs. Ducklow took her hands off. "Where are they now? where are they?" cried Ducklow, rushing headlong to the main question. "Don't know," said Taddy. "Don't know? you villain!" And Ducklow was rising in wrath. But Miss Beswick put up her hand deprecatingly. "If _you_ please!" she said, with grim civility; and Ducklow sank down again. "What did you do with 'em? what did you want of 'em?" said Mrs. Ducklow, with difficulty restraining an impulse to wring his neck. "To cover my kite," confessed the miserable Taddy. "Cover your kite! your kite!" A chorus of groans from the Ducklows. "Didn't you know no better?" "Didn't think you'd care," said Taddy. "I had some newspapers Dick give me to cover it; but I thought them things 'u'd be pootier. So I took 'em, and put the newspapers in the wrapper." "Did ye cover yer kite?" "No. When I found out you cared so much about 'em, I dars'n't; I was afraid you'd see 'em." "Then what _did_ you do with 'em?" "When you was away, Dick come over to sleep with me, and I--I sold 'em to him." "Sold 'em to Dick!" "Yes," spoke up Dick, stoutly, "for six marbles, and one was a bull's-eye, and one agate, and two alleys. Then, when you come home and made such a fuss, he wanted 'em ag'in. But he wouldn't give me back but four, and I wa'n't going to agree to no such nonsense as that." "I'd lost the bull's-eye and one common," whined Taddy. "But the bonds! did you destroy 'em?" "Likely I'd destroy 'em, after I'd paid six marbles for 'em!" said Dick. "I wanted 'em to cover _my_ kite with." "Cover _your_--oh! then _you_'ve made a kite of 'em?" said Ducklow.