onversation. Occasionally that 'ahem!' of his would come through
the partially opened door; but somehow his 'ahems' seemed to lose their
ominous character during holidays.

"The subject of our conversation was a robbery that had been
perpetrated at Squire Little's store the previous night.

"Robberies, as you know, were unusual occurrences in the little village
of Acme. Of course this one furnished a topic for abundance of talk.

"Wherever we had been that day we had found some groups of men and boys
talking about robberies in general, and this one in particular.

"It was but natural that in the evening we boys should discuss the same
subject, and each of us offered various speculations as to who the
robber was, where he had gone, and whether he would be captured or not.

"Then we told stories of all the daring burglaries of which we had ever
heard or read, and finally described such as had happened in our own
houses.

"In the descriptions of our personal experiences Fred gave a glowing
account of an incident that had occurred in his father's family. One
night he said the coachman thought he saw a man prowling in the
chicken-yard. He fired a pistol at him, and had summoned the other
servants to go in pursuit of the robber. He told us how the brave men,
armed with lanterns, pokers, and blunderbusses, had reached the
chicken-yard, and there found traces of blood, which they followed up
for a few yards, and found, lying in the last throes of death, the
victim of the coachman's prowess,--a fine black Spanish rooster!

"At length said I, 'What would you do if you should hear a burglar some
night trying to enter your house?'

"Fred straightened himself and squared his shoulders. 'I wouldn't
hesitate a moment to shoot him,' said he, valiantly. 'I tell you, it
would be a good burglar that could get away from me.'

"Al rested his chin in his hands, and gazed thoughtfully into the
glowing coals.

"'Well,' said he slowly, 'it is hard to tell what a fellow might do
under such circumstances. I rather believe, though, I would take good
care to keep out of his way. What would you do, Tom?'

"'Me?" I exclaimed. 'Very likely I'd cover my head with the bedclothes
and leave him to carry off house and all if he could.'

"Fred was about to make another remark, but was prevented by the
doctor, who appeared in the doorway. 'Well, boys,' said he, 'don't you
think we've had enough talk about robberies for one evening? I