n surprise, as the girl stepped noiselessly across
the threshold and confronted him.

"Well! Well!" he exclaimed, eying her somewhat sharply. "Why didn't you
knock at the door? Forgotten how? What do you want?"

The girl waited for a moment before replying, shuffling her bare feet
and tugging at her damp dress. Then she seemed to gather her courage.
She looked resolutely at Farmer Ellison.

"I want a licking, I guess," she said.

Farmer Ellison's face relaxed into a grim smile.

"A licking," he repeated. "Well, I reckon you deserve it, all right, if
not for one thing, then for something else."

"I guess I do," said Bess Thornton.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" queried Farmer Ellison,
looking puzzled. "Can't old Mother Thornton give it to you?"

"No," replied the girl. "She's sick. And besides, she didn't know what I
was going to do. I did it all myself, early this morning."

Farmer Ellison looked up quickly. An expression of suspicion stole over
his face. He looked at the girl's bedraggled dress.

"What have you been up to?" he asked, sternly.

"I've been stealing," replied the girl. "'Twas--'twas--"

Farmer Ellison sprang up from his seat.

"'Twas you, then, down by the shore?" he cried. "Confound it! I knew I
didn't need them burdock bitters all the time I was takin' 'em. Stealing
my trout, eh? Don't tell me you caught any?"

"Only three."

The girl half whispered the reply.

Farmer Ellison seized the girl by an arm and shook her roughly.

"Bring them back!" he cried. "Where are they?"

"I can't," stammered the girl; "they're cooked."

He shook her again.

"You ate my trout!" he cried. "Pity they didn't choke you. Didn't you
feel like choking--eating stolen trout, eh?"

"Gran' did," said the girl, ruefully. "But 'twas a bone, sir. She didn't
know they were stolen till I told her."

The sound of Farmer Ellison's wrathful voice had rung through the house,
and at this moment a woman entered the room. At the sight of her, Bess
Thornton suddenly darted away from the man's grasp, ran to Mrs. Ellison,
hid her face in her dress and sobbed.

"I didn't think 'twas so bad," she said. "I--I won't do it again--ever."

Mrs. Ellison, whose face expressed a tenderness in contrast to the
hardness of her husband's, stroked the girl's hair softly, seated
herself in a rocking chair, and drew the girl close to her.

"What made you take the fish?" she inquired softly.

"Well, gran' said we ough