the house, bawling wildly, “It’s all right! Got my money! Where’s
Nat?”
He was soon found, and his surprise and pleasure were so genuine
that few doubted his word when he now denied all knowledge of
the money.
“How could I put it back when I didn’t take it? Do believe me now,
and be good to me again,” he said, so imploringly, that Emil
slapped him on the back, and declared he would for one.
“So will I, and I’m jolly glad it’s not you. But who the dickens is
it?” said Tommy, after shaking hands heartily with Nat.
“Never mind, as long as it’s found,” said Dan with his eyes fixed on
Nat’s happy face.
“Well, I like that! I’m not going to have my things hooked, and
then brought back like the juggling man’s tricks,” cried Tommy,
looking at his money as if he suspected witchcraft.
“We’ll find him out somehow, though he was sly enough to print
this so his writing wouldn’t be known,” said Franz, examining the
paper.
“Demi prints tip-top,” put in Rob, who had not a very clear idea
what the fuss was all about.
“You can’t make me believe it’s him, not if you talk till you are
blue,” said Tommy, and the others hooted at the mere idea; for the
little deacon, as they called him, was above suspicion.
Nat felt the difference in the way they spoke of Demi and himself,
and would have given all he had or ever hoped to have to be so
trusted; for he had learned how easy it is to lose the confidence of
others, how very, very hard to win it back, and truth became to him
a precious thing since he had suffered from neglecting it.
Mr. Bhaer was very glad one step had been taken in the right
direction, and waited hopefully for yet further revelations. They
came sooner than he expected, and in a way that surprised and
grieved him very much. As they sat at supper that night, a square
parcel was handed to Mrs. Bhaer from Mrs. Bates, a neighbor. A
note accompanied the parcel, and, while Mr. Bhaer read it, Demi
pulled off the wrapper, exclaiming, as he saw its contents,
“Why, it’s the book Uncle Teddy gave Dan!”
“The devil!” broke from Dan, for he had not yet quite cured
himself of swearing, though he tried very hard.
Mr. Bhaer looked up quickly at the sound. Dan tried to meet his
eyes, but could not; his own fell, and he sat biting his lips, getting
redder and redder till he was the picture of shame.
“What is it?” asked Mrs. Bhaer, anxiously.
“I should have preferred to talk about this in private, but Demi has
spoilt that plan, so I may as well have it out now,” said Mr. Bhaer,
looking a little stern, as he always did when any meanness or
deceit came up for judgment.
“The note is from Mrs. Bates, and she says that her boy Jimmy told
her he bought this book of Dan last Saturday. She saw that it was
worth much more than a dollar, and thinking there was some
mistake, has sent it to me. Did you sell it, Dan?”
“Yes, sir,” was the slow answer.
“Why?”
“Wanted money.”
“For what?”
“To pay somebody.”
“To whom did you owe it?”
“Tommy.”
“Never borrowed a cent of me in his life,” cried Tommy, looked
scared, for he guessed what was coming now, and felt that on the
whole he would have preferred witchcraft, for he admired Dan
immensely.
“Perhaps he took it,” cried Ned, who owed Dan a grudge for the
ducking, and, being a mortal boy, liked to pay it off.
“O Dan!” cried Nat, clasping his hands, regardless of the bread and
butter in them.
“It is a hard thing to do, but I must have this settled, for I cannot
have you watching each other like detectives, and the whole school
disturbed in this way. did you put that dollar in the barn this
morning?” asked Mr. Bhaer.
Dan looked him straight in the face, and answered steadily, “Yes, I
did.”
A murmur went round the table, Tommy dropped his mug with a