had been sitting under the steps--it may
have been five minutes, or it may have been a quarter of an hour, and
he was beginning to feel a little cold--when he heard the cellar-door
open, and some one put their foot upon the steps.

"There they are!" he thought, and he cuddled himself up in the
smallest space possible.

Some one was coming down, sure enough, but it was not the children, as
Bob expected. It was his Aunt Alice and her cousin Tom Green. They had
come down to get some cider and apples for the company, and had no
thought of Bob. In fact, when Bob was missed it was supposed that he
had got tired and had gone up-stairs, where old Aunt Hannah was
putting some of the smaller children to bed.

So, of course, Alice and Tom Green did not try to find him, but Bob,
who could not see them, thought it was certainly some of the children
come down to look for him.

In this picture of the scene in the cellar, little Bob is behind those
two barrels in the right-hand upper corner, but of course you can't
see him. He knows how to hide too well for that.

[Illustration]

But when Tom and Alice spoke, Bob knew their voices and peeped out.

"Oh!" he thought, "it's only Aunt Alice and he. They've come down for
cider and things. I've got to hide safe now, or they'll tell when they
go up-stairs."

"I didn't know _all_ them barrels had apples in! I thought some were
potatoes. I wish they would just go up-stairs again and leave that
candle on the floor! I wonder if they will forget it! If they do, I'll
just eat a whole hat-full of those big red apples, and some of the
streakedy ones in the other barrel too; and then I'll put my mouth to
the spigot of that cider-barrel, and turn it, and drink and drink and
drink--and if there isn't enough left in that barrel, I'll go to
another one and turn that. I never did have enough cider in all my
life. I wish they'd hurry and go up.

"Kissin'! what's the good of kissin'! A cellar ain't no place for
that. I expect they won't remember to forget the candle if they don't
look out!

"Oh, pshaw! just look at 'em! They're a-going up again, and taking the
candle along! The mean things!"

Poor little Bob!

There he sat in his corner, all alone again in the darkness and
silence, for Tom and Alice had shut the cellar-door after them when
they had gone up-stairs. He sat quietly for a minute or two, and then
he said to himself:

"I b'lieve I'd just as lieve they'd find me as not."

And to