are too brave."

"Thank you," said Thaddeus, with a smile, as he thought of a certain
discussion he had had not long before at the club, in which he and
several other brave men had reached the unanimous conclusion that
the best thing to do at dead of night, with burglars in the house,
was to crawl down under the bedclothes and snore as loudly as
possible. "Nevertheless, my dear, you should have told me."

"I will next time," said Bessie.

"Was anything in the house disturbed?" Thaddeus asked.

"No," said Bessie. "Not a thing, as far as I can find out. Mary
says that everything was all right when she came down, and the cook
apparently found things straight, because she hasn't said anything."

So Thaddeus and Bessie made up their minds that the latter had been
dreaming, and that nothing was wrong. Two or three days later,
however, they changed their minds on the subject. There was
something decidedly wrong, but what it was they could not discover.
They were both awakened by a rustling sound in the hallway, outside
of their room, and this time there was a creak on the stairs that
was unmistakable.

"Don't move, Thaddeus," said Bessie, in a terrified whisper, as
Thaddeus made a brave effort to get up and personally investigate.
"I wouldn't have you hurt for all the world, and there isn't a thing
down-stairs they can take that we can't afford to lose."

Thaddeus felt very much as Bessie did, and it would have pleased him
much better to lie quietly where he was than run the risk of an
encounter with thieves. He had been brave enough in the company of
men to advocate cowardice in an emergency of just this sort, but now
that this same course was advocated by his wife, he saw it in a
different light. Prudence was possible, cowardice was not. He must
get up, and get up he did; but before going out of his room he
secured his revolver, which had lain untouched and unloaded in his
bureau-drawer for two years, and then advanced cautiously to the
head of the stairs and listened--Bessie meanwhile having buried her
face in her pillow as a possible means of assuaging her fears. It
is singular what a soothing effect a soft feather pillow sometimes
has upon the agitated nerves if the nose of the agitated person is
thrust far enough into its yielding surface.

"Who is there?" cried Thaddeus, standing at the head of the stairs,
his knees all of a shake, but whether from fear or from cold, as an
admirer of Thaddeus I prefer