mother doted
on one another.

'"I know you would," said my grandmother, dismally. "And I can't
think how the temptation took me. But the poor creatur' was little
more'n a boy--and there were a-something in the eyes of him--"
She meant to say there was a-something that reminded her of her own
eldest, that she had lost a dozen years before.

'I don't know whether my grandfather understood or whether he didn't.
But all he said was, "However did you contrive it?"

'"It came," she said, "of my takin' they six white rabbits to market.
I sold mun all; and when they were sold, and the hutch standin'
empty--" My grandmother pulled out her handkerchief and dabbed her
eyes.

'"You drove him out in the rabbit hutch?" asked my grandfather.

'"With a handful of straw between him and the bars," she owned.
"He's nobbut a boy. You can't think how easy. And the look of him
when he crep' inside--"

'"Where is he?" asked my grandfather.

'"Somewheres hangin' about the stable at this moment," she told him,
with a kind o' sob.

'So my grandfather went out to the back. He could not find the
prisoner in the stable, but by-and-by he caught sight of him on the
slope of the stubble field behind it. The poor lad had taken a hoe,
and was pretending to work it, while he edged away in the dimmety
light.

'"Hallo!" sings out my grandfather across the gate; and goes striding
up the field to him. "If I were you," says he, "I wouldn't hoe
stubble; because that's a new kind of agriculture in these parts, and
likely to attract notice."

'"I was doin' my best," twittered the prisoner. He was a
delicate-lookin' lad, very white just now about the gills.
"I come from Marblehead," he explained, "and, bein' bred to the sea,
I didn't think it would matter."

'"It will, you'll find, if you persevere with it. But come indoors.
We'll stow you in the cider-loft for to-night, after you've taken a
bite of supper. And to-morrow--well, I'll have to think that out,"
said my grandfather.

'For the next few hours he felt pretty easy. He and his wife had a
good reputation with the agent, who would take a long time before
suspecting them of any hand in an escape. The three ate their supper
together in good comfort, though from time to time my grandfather
pricked up his ears as though he heard the sound of a gun. But the
wind blew from the south-west that night, and if a gun was fired the
sound did not carry.

'When supper was done my grandmot