ts you;" and Dickey
obeyed. Willy had run on ahead. He found Mrs. Rose, Miss Elvira, Willy,
and the twenty-three teaspoons awaiting him in the kitchen. He shook his
head to every question they asked him about the missing spoon. He turned
quite pale; once in a while he whimpered; the tears streamed down his
cheeks, but he only shook his head in that mute denial.

"It won't make it any easier for you, holding out this way," said Mrs.
Rose, harshly. "Stop cryin' and go out and split up some kindlin'-wood."

Dickey went out, his little convulsed form bent almost double. Willy,
staring at him with his great, wondering blue eyes, stood aside to let
him pass. Then he also was sent on an errand, while his mother and Miss
Elvira had a long consultation in the kitchen.

It was a half-hour before Mrs. Rose went out to the shed where she had
sent the Dickey boy to split kindlings. There lay a nice little pile of
kindlings, but the boy had disappeared.

"Dickey, Dickey!" she called. But he did not come.

"I guess he's gone, spoon and all," she told Miss Elvira, when she went
in; but she did not really think he had. When one came to think of it,
he was really too small and timid a boy to run away with one silver
spoon. It did not seem reasonable. What they did think, as time went on
and he did not appear, was that he was hiding to escape a whipping. They
searched everywhere. Miss Elvira stood in the shed by the wood-pile,
calling in her thin voice, "Come out, Dickey; we won't whip you if you
_did_ take it," but there was not a stir.

Towards night they grew uneasy. Mr. Fairbanks came, and they talked
matters over.

"Maybe he didn't take the spoon," said Mr. Fairbanks, uncomfortably.
"Anyhow, he's too young a chap to be set adrift this way. I wish you'd
let me talk to him, 'Mandy."

"_You!_" said Mrs. Rose. Then she started up. "I know one thing," said
she; "I'm goin' to see what's in that wooden box. I don't believe but
what that spoon's in there. There's no knowin' how long it's been gone."

It was quite a while before Mrs. Rose returned with the wooden box. She
had to search for it, and found it under the bed. The Dickey boy also
had hidden his treasures. She got the hammer and Hiram pried off the
lid, which was quite securely nailed. "I'd ought to have had it opened
before," said she. "He hadn't no business to have a nailed-up box
'round. Don't joggle it so, Hiram. There's no knowin' what's in it.
There may be a pistol."