's pantry,--'bout the second
shelf between the ice chest and the cheese crock. Sunday evening after
meeting was rather a lean time with Old Preachers he said he'd always
noticed.--And Old Lawyers was noted for their fat larders.--And there
were certain things about cheese somehow that seemed to be soothin' to
the memory.

"Why, how perfectly extraordinary!" said everybody.

"One dollar, please!" said Old Man Smith again.

And when Little Tommy Bent ran away to the city his Mother hunted all
the hospitals for him! And made 'em drag the river! And wore a long
black veil all the time! And howled!

But Old Man Smith said, "Oh Shucks! It ain't at all probable, is it,
that he was aimin' at hospitals or rivers when he went away?--What's the
use of worryin' over the things he _weren't_ aimin' at till you've
investigated the things he _was_?"

"Aimin' at?" sobbed Mrs. Bent. "Aimin' at?--Who in the world could ever
tell what any little boy was aimin' at?"

"And there's something in that, too!" said Old Man Smith. "What did he
look like?"

"Like his father," said Mrs. Bent.

"U-m-m. Plain, you mean?" said Old Man Smith.

"He was only nine years old," sobbed Mrs. Bent. "But he did love
Meetings so! No matter what they was about he was always hunting for
some new Meetings to go to! He just seemed naturally to dote hisself on
any crowd of people that was all facing the other way looking at
somebody else! He had a little cowlick at the back of his neck!" sobbed
Mrs. Bent. "It was a comical little cowlick! People used to laugh at it!
He never liked to sit any place where there was anybody sitting behind
him!"

"Now you're talking!" said Old Man Smith. "Will he answer to the name of
'Little Tommy Bent?'"

"He will not!" said Mrs. Bent "He's that stubborn! He's exactly like his
Father!"

Old Man Smith wrote an entirely new advertisement to put in the papers.
It didn't say anything about Rivers! Or Hospitals! Or 'Dead or Alive!'
It just said:

LOST: In the back seat of Most Any Meeting,
a Very Plain Little Boy. Will _not_
answer to the name of "Little Tommy
Bent." Stubborn, like his Father.

"We'll put that in about being 'stubborn,'" said Old Man Smith, "because
it sounds quaint and will interest people."

"It won't interest Mr. Bent!" sobbed Mrs. Bent. "And it seems awful
cruel to make it so public about the child's being plain!"

Old Man Smith spoke coldly to her.

"Would you r