They were not to be caught
by that bait, and stood off pretty considerably, when Pop whispered over
to us, in quite a jolly tone of voice: "Don't be afraid, boys. I like to
see you enjoy yourselves. I was a boy once myself. Bless your hearts! I
like fun yet as well as anybody."

Then he laughed ready to split, bent himself double, and we all began to
feel easy, and laugh too. Tom Jones said he wished _his_ father was like
mine, and Pop began to encourage us to do more. We were so spurred on by
him that we hardly left a gate in the place where it belonged, Pop going
along with us, acting as a kind of scout, he said, and seeing that
nobody was near to disturb us. Once or twice he gave a signal of alarm,
and we all crouched down as still as mice, Pop stiller than any of us. I
never was so dumfounded in my life, for I'd never seen Pop very jolly
that way before. The boys were delighted with him; they all agreed to
make him president of our club, and Pop said he'd take the position when
he got back from the Legislature.

Well, we'd come to the conclusion the place was completely done, and Jim
Clancy proposed we should go home. Jim had torn his hands rather badly
with Uncle Jake's gate, and didn't feel very good, when suddenly Pop
said:

"Yes, boys, of course we'll go home pretty soon, when we're through, you
know; but we must put _all the gates back in their places again first_!"

We all looked at each other aghast for a minute. "Back again!" cried the
fellows. "Well, I guess not!" "Not much!" "Hardly!" and all sorts of
derisive refusals went round.

Pop stood among us, whirling his cane, smiling all the time, and said:
"Oh, yes you will, boys, when you think of it a minute. You've had your
fun, you know; but it won't do to go too far. I'm a justice of the
peace, you see, and this innocent little racket comes under the head of
'malicious mischief.' You could all be sent to jail; and no matter how
badly I'd feel, I'd have to act under the law. There's where it is, you
see; people are so hard on boys they won't let them enjoy themselves.
It's too bad; but never mind, we've had our fun anyway. Now let's get to
work in earnest. Here, we'll begin with this gate. Lift it up there,
Jim; hold on the other side, Bobby, my boy. Now we have it--all
together." And as true as you live, we actually found ourselves walking
along with the gate between us. From that gate we went to another, and
another. I don't know how it was, but we j