se, hoping to find
him there. But he was not there! He came back to report. Perhaps the
young man had opened the door and gone on home. Solomon John and
Agamemnon went back together, but they could not get in. Where was the
young man? He had lately come to town, and nobody knew where he lived,
for on the return of Solomon John and Agamemnon it had been proposed
to go to the house of the young man. The night was wearing on. The
midnight train had come and gone. The passengers who came and went
looked with wonder at Mrs. Peterkin, nodding in her turban, as she sat
by the stove, on a corner of a long bench. At last the station-master
had to leave, for a short rest. He felt obliged to lock up the
station, but he promised to return at an early hour to release them.

"Of what use," said Elizabeth Eliza, "if we cannot even then get into
our own house?"

Mr. Peterkin thought the matter appeared bad, if the locksmith had
left town. He feared the young man might have gone in, and helped
himself to spoons, and left. Only they should have seen him if he had
taken the midnight train. Solomon John thought he appeared honest. Mr.
Peterkin only ventured to whisper his suspicions, as he did not wish
to arouse Mrs. Peterkin, who still was nodding in the corner of the
long bench.

Morning did come at last. The family decided to go to their home;
perhaps by some effort in the early daylight they might make an
entrance.

On the way they met with the night-policeman, returning from his beat.
He stopped when he saw the family.

[Illustration]

"Ah! that accounts," he said; "you were all out last night, and the
burglars took occasion to make a raid on your house. I caught a
lively young man in the very act; box of tools in his hand! If I had
been a minute late he would have made his way in"--

The family then tried to interrupt--to explain--

"Where is he?" exclaimed Mr. Peterkin.

"Safe in the lock-up," answered the policeman.

"But he is the locksmith!" interrupted Solomon John.

"We have no key!" said Elizabeth Eliza; "if you have locked up the
locksmith we can never get in."

The policeman looked from one to the other, smiling slightly when he
understood the case.

"The locksmith!" he exclaimed; "he is a new fellow, and I did not
recognize him, and arrested him! Very well, I will go and let him out,
that he may let you in!" and he hurried away, surprising the Peterkin
family with what seemed like insulting screams of laug