r out of the
villain's head, if I knew who did it."

"Who was it that kicked your dog last night, and called him an ugly
puppy?" Philip asked.

Miss Dobb remembered who, and her eyes flashed. Philip walked on, and
came across Bob Swift, who had been standing round the corner of Mr.
Noggin's shop, listening to all that was said. They laughed at
something, then stopped and looked at Mr. Noggin's bees, which were
buzzing and humming merrily in the bright October sun.

That night Mr. Noggin heard a noise in his yard. Springing out of bed
and going to the window, he saw that a thief was taking the boxes of
honey from his patent hives. He opened the door and shouted, "Thief!
Thief!" The robber ran. In the morning Mr. Noggin found that the thief
had dropped his hat in his haste. He picked it up. "Aha! 'Pears to me I
have seen this hat before. Paul Parker's, as sure as I am alive!" he
said. It was the hat which Paul wore in Mr. Chrome's paint-shop.
Everybody knew it, because it was daubed and spattered with paint.

Mr. Noggin went to his work. He was a well-meaning man, but
shallow-brained. He knew how to make good barrels, tubs, and buckets,
but had no mind of his own. He put on his leather apron, and commenced
driving the hoops upon a barrel, pounding with his adze, singing, and
making the barrel ring with

"Cooper ding, cooper ding, cooper ding, ding, ding!
Cooper ding, cooper ding, cooper ding, ding, ding!
Cooper ding, job, job,
Cooper ding, bob, bob,
Heigh ho,--ding, ding, ding!"

Mr. Noggin was rattling on in that fashion when Miss Dobb, followed by
Trip, entered the shop.

"Well, I declare! That is the first time I ever saw a pup with a shirt
on," said Mr. Noggin, stopping and looking at the poodle sewed up in
flannel. "That is Paul Parker's doings,--I mean the shearing," said Miss
Dobb, her eyes flashing indignantly.

"Paul's work! O ho! Then he shears pups besides robbing bee-hives, does
he?" said Mr. Noggin. He told Miss Dobb what had happened.

"It is your duty, Mr. Noggin, to have him arrested at once. You are
under imperative obligations to the community as a law and order abiding
citizen to put the sheriff upon his track. He is a hypocrite. He ought
to be pitched out of the singing-seats head first." So Miss Dobb wound
Mr. Noggin round her finger, and induced him to enter a complaint
against Paul.