to consider going home,
when three boys, strolling that way, pressed their noses against the
window-pane. Then they wandered in.

"What's the kid doin' in the liberrian's chair?" asked one. Elsmere
maintained a dignified silence, stamping the date rapidly and inkily on
a pile of fresh catalog cards.

"Say, kid, where's the liberrian?"

"I'm liberrian."

"O, come off. Where's the real one? The feller that knows it all, and
walks like a seesaw."

"That's Algy," said Elsmere, with fraternal recognition. "Algy's sick.
I'm liberrian."

His questioner looked at him keenly.

"I say, kids, let's us be liberrians. You put the little feller out."

The obedient henchmen put the howling Elsmere down from his seat, and
exalted their chief.

"I'm it," said that worthy. "You pick out books you want, and I'll fix
'em up."

The others, nothing loath, picked out certain extra-illustrated volumes
which Algernon did not allow to circulate, and presented them at the
desk, where they helped the presiding official to "fix 'em up" according
to methods suggested by intuition combined with a little observation.

"Say, now it's my turn," said one of the subordinates. "You git down and
let me. Does that chair screw 'round?"

It did, and in the ensuing scuffle, it not only screwed around but the
top fell off, carrying three boys and an assortment of inks with it.

At the same moment, Max and Archie entered to while away an idle
half-hour with the daily paper.

The big boys were prompt, but the little boys were prompter. The back
door swung on its hinges and Max and Archie, puffing, ejaculating and
wrathful, gave over attempts at capture for efforts at repair, Max going
off to hunt up Algernon, while Archie gathered up scattered cards and
mopped up the ink with dust-cloths.

Seeking Algernon, Max ran across Mrs. Osgood making calls. Hearing his
tale, she went back with him to the scene of disaster, and her capable
fingers soon brought about some appearance of order, though the
intricacies of card systems were beyond her.

"I'd like to know who the rascals are that did it," she said with
emphasis; "and I can't see how they got in. Where do you suppose
Algernon is?"

"He caught cold yesterday," Archie told her, "but it doesn't seem
possible that he would send down anybody who would go off and leave the
place open. I saw the little Weed boy, but I didn't know the other two.
They lit out like lightning, and I didn't care to chase