o the room.

"You shall stay here for the present," snapped Josiah Crabtree. "When I
let you out I think you'll be a sadder and perhaps a wiser boy."

"Am I to have my breakfast?"

"No," answered the teacher.

Then he banged the door shut, locked it, and walked swiftly away.

CHAPTER XXI

A GRAVE ACCUSATION

"Well, I suppose I ought not to complain," mused Pepper, as he sat down
on one of the chairs. "A fellow can't have his fun without paying for
it. But just wait till I catch Mumps! I'll give him a piece of my mind,
and maybe more!"

He got up presently and looked out of the window. He could see but
little excepting a stretch of snow. The cell-like room was almost
without heat, and he had to clap his hands together, and stamp his feet,
to keep warm.

"I think I'd give a dollar for some breakfast," he muttered. "Wonder if
I could attract the attention of one of the servants and bribe him to
get me something?"

As he walked around the little room his eyes caught some writing on the
wall. There were several bits of doggerel, one running as follows:

"I am a prisoner of old Josiah,
I'd feel much better if I had a fire!"

"I can sympathize with that fellow," murmured Pepper, as he slapped his
hands across his chest, trying to get up more circulation. Then he
walked around the room, reading another doggerel or two. Finally he drew
out a lead pencil.

"Guess I'll play Shakespeare myself," he murmured, and after some
thought, scribbled down the following:

"And I am jugged
Alone in solitude, and by myself
Alone. I sit and think, and think,
And think again. Old Crabtree,
Base villain that he is, hath put me here!
And why? Ah, thereby hangs a tale, Horatio!
His teeth, the teeth that chew the best of steak
Set on our table--those I found and hid;
And Mumps, the sneak, hath told on me! Alas!
When will my martyrdom end?"

Having finished his attempt at blank verse, Pepper continued to walk
around the room. He was hungry and cold, and inside of an hour grew
somewhat desperate.

"Crabtree has no right to starve me and allow me to catch cold," he told
himself. "I don't believe Captain Putnam will stand for it. I'm going to
attract some attention."

He took up one of the chairs and with it commenced to pound on the door.
He had been pounding for several minutes when he