at this revelation of the inadequate
emoluments of literature and the trifling inducements to crime. Indeed,
I fear the affair began to take a less serious moral complexion in his
eyes.

"Then White Violet--your sister Cynthia, you know," continued Mr.
Hamlin, in easy parenthesis--"wrote for this?" holding the coin
contemplatively in his fingers, "and you calculated to nab it yourself?"

The quick searching glance with which Bob received the name of his
sister, Mr. Hamlin attributed only to his natural surprise that
this stranger should be on such familiar terms with her; but the boy
responded immediately and bluntly:--

"No! SHE didn't write for it. She didn't want nobody to know who she
was. Nobody wrote for it but me. Nobody KNEW FOLKS WAS PAID FOR PO'TRY
BUT ME. I found it out from a feller. I wrote for it. I wasn't goin' to
let that skunk of an editor have it himself!"

"And you thought YOU would take it," said Hamlin, his voice resuming
its old tone. "Well, George--I mean Bob, your conduct was praiseworthy,
although your intentions were bad. Still, twenty dollars is rather
too much for your trouble. Suppose we say five and call it square?" He
handed the astonished boy five dollars. "Now, George Washington," he
continued, taking four other twenty-dollar pieces from his pocket, and
adding them to the inclosure, which he carefully refolded, "I'm going to
give you another chance to live up to your reputation. You'll take that
package, and hand it to White Violet, and say you found it, just as
it is, in the lock-box. I'll keep the letter, for it would knock you
endways if it was seen, and I'll make it all right with the editor. But,
as I've got to tell him that I've seen White Violet myself, and know
she's got it, I expect YOU to manage in some way to have me see her.
I'll manage the rest of it; and I won't blow on you, either. You'll
come back to the hotel, and tell me what you've done. And now, George,"
concluded Mr. Hamlin, succeeding at last in fixing the boy's evasive eye
with a peculiar look, "it may be just as well for you to understand
that I know every nook and corner of this place, that I've already been
through that underbrush you spoke of once this morning, and that I've
got a mare that can go wherever YOU can, and a d----d sight quicker!"

"I'll give the package to White Violet," said the boy, doggedly.

"And you'll come back to the hotel?"

The boy hesitated, and then said, "I'll come back."

"A