t in the crib.

"Where's my husband?" she demanded. "Don't speak! Don't say a word! I
want to know where my husband is!"

"Well, how kin I tell you if I don't speak?" snarled the deacon. "I
dunno where he is, anyhow! Go 'way and lemme alone! This hot weather is
giving me an awful headache."

"Oh, you've got a headache, have ye? Well, that's retribution, Mr.
Hewett. You ought to have a headache. You've led my husband astray. He's
a temperance man."

"Me lead him astray!" groaned Hewett. "Why, 'twas him and Eben that
coaxed me over to Applesnack's store."

"Now don't you tell me that, you sinful old hypocrite! Eli never touches
hard cider unless somebody induces him to do so. And I know Eben don't
drink it on account of the effect on his rheumatiz."

"That's right, mother!" piped a weak, small voice from beneath the crib,
as Eli poked his head out. "The deacon is all to blame!"

"Oh, there you be!" she snapped, as she pounced on him and pulled him
forth. "Now you git up here and march home!"

Having pulled him to his feet, she took a firm grip on his ear and led
him from the stall and out of the stable.

CHAPTER XXIII.

IN THE NOOK.

That afternoon was to be long remembered by all the visitors at Merry
Home. It passed pleasantly in spite of the fact that Hans insisted on
"rending a selection" on the flute and seemed rather disappointed and
downcast when they begged him not to play any more.

"Der musig haf no heart for you," he complained. "Maype you vould like a
popular song to sing to me. I vill gif you 'Efrybody Vorks Poor Vather.'
Yes? No?"

"Don't yez do it, Hans," entreated Barney. "We have suffered enough
already."

"Und id vos such a peautiful song!" moaned Dunnerwurst. "I understandt
der author uf dot song got only fife hundret dollars for writin' id."

"Waal," drawled Gallup, "maybe it was his first offense. Did he pay the
fine?"

"Fife hundret dollars vos a small amoundt," said Hans. "Still I vould
like to add it py my 'lefen dollars and seventeen cents vot I haf my
pocket in."

"How much would that make in all?" questioned Gallup. "You always was a
rippin' good mathematicker, Hans, though seems to me you did git a
little balled up in substraction. If you've gut eleven dollars and
sixteen cents in your pocket, and I should take five dollars away from
you, whaot would be the result?"

"You vould be carried avay an ambulance in," said the Dutchman promptly.

Carker had bestowed a