p his mind upon this point. He uttered a
loud exclamation and struck the zinc table-top a smart blow with
his clenched fist.

Laura had thrown the book out of the window!

In the exaltation of this triumph, he forgot that it was not yet
the hour for a scholar's reappearance, and went forth in haste to
search the ground beneath the window--a disappointing quest, for
nowhere in the yard was there anything but withered grass, and the
rubbish of other frost-bitten vegetation. His mother, however,
discovered something else, and, opening the kitchen window, she
asked, with surprise:

"Why, Hedrick, what on earth are you doing here?"

"Me?" inquired Hedrick.

"What are you doing here?"

"Here?" Evidently she puzzled him.

She became emphatic. "I want to know what you are doing."

"Just standing here," he explained in a meek, grieved way.

"But why aren't you at school?"

This recalled what he had forgotten, and he realized the
insecurity of his position. "Oh, yes," he said--"school. Did you
ask me----"

"Didn't you go to school?"

He began to speak rapidly. "Didn't I go to _school_? Well, where
else could I go? Just because I'm here now doesn't mean I didn't
_go_, does it? Because a person is in China right now wouldn't
have to mean he'd never been in South America, would it?"

"Then what's the matter?"

"Well, I was going along, and you know I didn't feel very well
and----" He paused, with the advent of a happier idea, then
continued briskly: "But that didn't stop me, because I thought I
ought to go if I dropped, so I went ahead, but the teacher was
sick and they couldn't get a substitute. She must have been pretty
sick, she looked so pale----"

"They dismissed the class?"

"And I don't have to go to-morrow either."

"I see," said his mother. "But if you feel ill, Hedrick, hadn't
you better come in and lie down?"

"I think it's kind of passing off. The fresh air seems to be doing
me good."

"Be careful of your sore knee, dear." She closed the window, and
he was left to continue his operations in safety.

Laura had thrown the ledger out of the window; that was proved
absolutely. Obviously, she had come down before daylight and
retrieved it. Or, she had not. Proceeding on the assumption that
she had not, he lifted his eyes and searched the air. Was it
possible that the book, though thrown from the window, had never
reached the ground? The branches of an old and stalwart maple, now
almost divested o