"I'll leave you boys here alone while I attend to making up a bed. You could sleep in the spare-room, I suppose; but my best sheets are there, and I don't just like to--Why, you didn't use the napkins!" Joe's face was of a deep crimson hue, as he replied: "If I'd seen any soap an' water I'd known what they meant; but it's been so long since I was in a reg'lar house that I've kind'er forgot how to behave." Aunt Dorcas turned away quickly, and when she had left the room Plums said, as he unbent from the awkward position he had at first assumed in the straight chair: "Dan Fernald ain't in this! He may be a mighty big detective, but he slips up when it comes to hustlin' for these kind of snaps!" "Aunt Dorcas is nice, ain't she?" "She's a corker!" "If the princess was only here we'd be jest about as snug as any two fellers that could be found in this world." "I'm going to give you the chamber over the kitchen; it is clean and comfortable, but, of course, not as nice as the spare-room," aunt Dorcas said, as she entered suddenly, causing Master Plummer to instantly assume a less negligent attitude. "Plums an' me ain't slept in a reg'lar bed for so long that a blanket spread out on the floor would seem mighty good to us," Joe replied, and the little woman held up both hands in astonishment. "Haven't slept in a bed! Well, I've heard of the heathen in our midst, but never believed I'd be brought in contact with them. How did you--But, there, I won't ask questions to-night, when I know you must be tired. We'll read a chapter, and then you can go to bed. I will wash the dishes afterwards." Reverentially the little woman took a well-worn Bible from the small table beneath one of the windows, and while the two boys who were fleeing from the officers of the law, as they believed, gazed at her in wonderment and surprise, but not understanding that which they heard, she read one of the psalms. Then kneeling, she prayed in simple language which reached their hearts, for the homeless ones within her gates. Joe's eyes were moist when she rose to her feet, and Plums whispered, in a voice choked with emotion: "She's a daisy, that's what's the matter with her!" CHAPTER VIII. A HUNGRY DETECTIVE. When aunt Dorcas had ushered the boys into the "room over the kitchen," and left them with a kindly "good night," they gazed around in such astonishment as can best be depicted by Master Plummer's emphatic remark shortly after the little woman went down-stairs. "I've always thought swells had a pretty soft snap when they went to bed; but I never counted on its bein' anything like this. Do you s'pose she means for us to get right into that bed, an' muss it all up?" Joe did not reply for several seconds, and then said, doubtfully: