made me
think somehow of a puppy that knows he's going to be scrubbed and--and
dreads it exceedingly. It's because of those dreadful things he's been
wearing, don't you suppose so?"

"No doubt of it," her brother said. "No doubt! And now I'm going over
to invite Dexter Allison to come and take a look at him. I was telling
him only yesterday that a gentleman had to be a gentleman born."

When Caleb came back, an hour later, with Allison at his heels, he
searched the house through without finding the boy. In his perplexity
he appealed to Sarah, who followed him to the front door.

"Where's Stephen?" he asked.

Sarah nodded to Allison.

"Why, I waited a half-hour, Cal," she said, "and then, when I thought
you wouldn't be back for a while, I sent him downtown--I sent him to
the village----"

Caleb seemed fairly to shrink.

"You sent him down to the village?" he echoed. "Did he--did he change
his clothes?"

"For some eggs," Sarah rounded out the sentence.

"And of course he didn't!" Suddenly her brother's face alarmed her.
"Cal," she exclaimed, "I haven't done anything I shouldn't have done,
have I?"

Caleb turned a wry face toward Allison.

"In--that--outfit!" he groaned. "Down to the village, and it's a
lumber town! He's gone, and if he doesn't have to fight his way back
then I----"

Sarah's alarm changed to fear instantly. She stepped out upon the
porch.

"I never thought of that," she whispered. "But you don't really
think----"

In her agitation she turned to Allison for contradiction. But Allison,
after placing a chair for her, drew one up for himself and, with an
expansive smile of anticipation upon his face, propped his feet upon
the rail.

"I think," he assured her, with no comfort in the assurance, "that this
will be well worth watching through to the finish!"

They sat and waited and in due course of time the boy returned. As he
appeared at the gate Sarah, with a strange choking sound in her throat,
half rose and then dropped weakly back into her chair. And even to
Allison, who had fondly looked forward to the worst, the little suit
with the pretty ruffed cuffs was an unbelievable wreck. The coat had
been ripped from hem to collar and dangled loose upon either side as
the boy advanced toward them; the knees of the trousers were split till
the bare skin showed through beneath, and those portions of the fabric
which were not encrusted with dirt were liberally o'er-spread with egg