s boyish life. He told of his
decline in her affections after his unpardonable sin in keeping her
waiting while he went for the trout, and added the miserable mistake of
the rattlesnake episode. "For it was a mistake, Mr. Hamlin. I oughtn't
to have let a lady like that know anything about snakes--just because I
happen to know them."

"It WAS an awful slump, Lee," said Hamlin gravely. "Get a woman and
a snake together--and where are you? Think of Adam and Eve and the
serpent, you know."

"But it wasn't that way," said the boy earnestly. "And I want to tell
you something else that's just makin' me sick, Mr. Hamlin. You know I
told you William Henry lives down at the bottom of Burroughs's garden,
and how I showed Mrs. Burroughs his tricks! Well, only two days ago I
was down there looking for him, and couldn't find him anywhere. There's
a sort of narrow trail from the garden to the hill, a short cut up to
the Ridge, instead o' going by their gate. It's just the trail any one
would take in a hurry, or if they didn't want to be seen from the road.
Well! I was looking this way and that for William Henry, and whistlin'
for him, when I slipped on to the trail. There, in the middle of it, was
an old bucket turned upside down--just the thing a man would kick away
or a woman lift up. Well, Mr. Hamlin, I kicked it away, and"--the boy
stopped, with rounded eyes and bated breath, and added--"I just had time
to give one jump and save myself! For under that pail, cramped down so
he couldn't get out, and just bilin' over with rage, and chockful of
pizen, was William Henry! If it had been anybody else less spry, they'd
have got bitten,--and that's just what the sneak who put it there knew."

Mr. Hamlin uttered an exclamation under his breath, and rose to his
feet.

"What did you say?" asked the boy quickly.

"Nothing," said Mr. Hamlin.

But it had sounded to Leonidas like an oath.

Mr. Hamlin walked a few steps, as if stretching his limbs, and then
said: "And you think Burroughs would have been bitten?"

"Why, no!" said Leonidas in astonished indignation; "of course not--not
BURROUGHS. It would have been poor MRS. Burroughs. For, of course, HE
set that trap for her--don't you see? Who else would do it?"

"Of course, of course! Certainly," said Mr. Hamlin coolly. "Of course,
as you say, HE set the trap--yes--you just hang on to that idea."

But something in Mr. Hamlin's manner, and a peculiar look in his eye,
did not satisfy Le