his afternoon and found one of her trees gone--"

"Yes, but somebody else might have taken it! You say you are not certain
which lot you took it from."

"But I could tell in a holy minute if I should go up there--"

"Sube!" his father glared at him dangerously. "You are positively
forbidden to go anywhere near that cemetery for the next six months! If
you do,--I will turn you over to the authorities, and let the law take
its course. Don't forget that! I mean it!--And now, you may go to bed
just as fast as you can get there."

"But I want to tell you some'pm--"

"I don't care to hear another word. I've heard quite enough for one
night. Go--to--bed!"

As Sube dragged himself unwillingly up the stairs, Mrs. Cane said to her
husband:

"Well, at last the tide has turned. Sube has discovered the truth."

"Huh! I must say he picked out a fine time to discover it," was her
husband's grim rejoinder. "Why, if Mrs. Hotchkiss-Harger should believe
I ever did such a thing as rob a cemetery of its shrubbery, she'd never
trust me again--and besides, I'd die of shame and mortification."

"Well," comforted Mrs. Cane, "in the first place, she'd never believe
such a thing. And in the next place, what does an old evergreen tree
amount to compared with the truth? I must admit that I was somewhat
surprised to see you trying to lead your own son into evasion when he
was doing his best to tell the truth."

* * * * *

Next day, with an armful of packages Nancy Guilford ascended the Canes'
front porch and rang the doorbell. And as Annie was stuffing the turkey
Mrs. Cane herself opened the door.

"How is Sube feeling to-day?" asked Nancy in her most winning tone.

Mrs. Cane had not heard that he was ill, but she guessed at once that
his early retirement of the evening before must have been based on an
imaginary indisposition. "Come right in, and see for yourself," she
invited cordially.

Sube was cornered in the library; there was no escape. And it was with
the face of a desperado at bay that he confronted Nancy as she entered.

"Hello!" she called cheerfully. "Feeling better to-day? I was so sorry
you couldn't stay last night."

Sube glared at her in silence as she went on placidly.

"I brought over your presents for you. Most of 'em are jokes. You
mustn't open 'em until after I go."

But as Mrs. Cane stepped out of the room Nancy changed her mind, and
decided to open one present, a longish pa