"No, they ran early this morning off already." "And Albert ran off," said Aunt 'Liza. "I could not help it. I went a little while on the garret, and when I came back, he was gone. I cannot help it. I--Where are you then going, Daniel?" Uncle Daniel cast a scornful glance at the two women who could not keep three children, one a mere baby, from running away, and at the fright-stricken Jacob; then, regardless of the hot supper, about which he was usually so particular, he stalked out. "Put Albert's high chair to the table," he had ordered briefly. In fifteen minutes he was back. Aunt 'Liza had not learned much tact in all her twenty years of wedded life, or she would not have begun to question him before he was inside the door. "Where is then Albert?" she asked. Swartz did not deign to answer. With a heavy frown, he sat down at the table and began to eat. "Didn't she give him to _you_?" demanded Aunt Mena, aghast. "Be still," said Uncle Daniel shortly. "Did she get after you with the gun?" asked Jacob Kalb. He had just finished giving the women an account of his adventure. He said that he saw the gun-barrel when he looked in the keyhole. "Then she didn't come out after you?" said Aunt Mena. "No, but she _was_ coming," insisted Jacob. "I am going to have the law on her, that is what I am going to do. I will have her put in jail. I will have her--" "Be quiet," said Uncle Daniel to him, also. Aunt Mena rose to go. "I don't come again after Ellie and Weezy, remember," she said. "If you fetch them over, perhaps I will take them back. Just tame Sarah a little--" She forgot that her own efforts at taming had not been very successful. "And then put somebody in the house, so she cannot get back. That will settle it." "Be quiet," said Uncle Daniel again. "I will have the law on her," muttered Jacob Kalb. Every few minutes he rubbed his leg, as though he were feeling for a gunshot wound. It was ten minutes before Uncle Daniel laid down his knife and fork and pushed back his plate. Either reflection or the good supper had soothed him. The angry flush was dying out of his face. "Well, what are you going to do?" asked Aunt 'Liza. "I have it fixed," he answered complacently. "Are you going to put her out of the house?" asked Aunt 'Liza. "Are you going to have the law on her?" asked Jacob Kalb. "Yes," answered Uncle Daniel. "I am going to put her out of the house, and I am going to have the law on her. I am going to do both of those things. I am going to be the guardian of her and of Ellie and Weezy and Albert." "Guardian?" repeated Aunt Eliza. "Yes, guardian. Those children must have a guardian, and I am the one to be it. But I must have papers. You cannot be a guardian unless you have the papers from the court. I will go to-morrow to town and get papers. Everything shall be fixed right." Aunt Eliza was alarmed. "But it will cost money!" she cried.