hadn't been careless and left the dungeon unlocked the money
would have been in no danger, and if the twins hadn't wakened me I
wouldn't have known there was a burglar about the place, and if Fairy
hadn't kept me from rushing out to the dungeon to see if the money was
safe, he would have got away, and--it took the policemen to get him
out. Oh, I know that is not very grammatical, father, but it's just as
true as if it were! And I honestly can't see that much credit is due
me."

But Mount Mark did not take it so calmly. And as for the Methodist
church,--well, the Presbyterian people used to say there was "no living
with those Methodists, since the girls caught a burglar in the
parsonage." Of course, it was important, from the Methodist point of
view. Pictures of the parsonage and the church were in all the papers
for miles around, and at their very next meeting the trustees decided
to get the piano the Sunday-school had been needing for the last
hundred years!

When the five hundred dollars arrived from Chicago, Prudence felt that
personally she had no real right to the money. "We must divide it,"
she insisted, "for I didn't earn it a bit more than any of the others.
But it is perfectly glorious to have five hundred dollars, isn't it?
Did you ever have five hundred dollars before? Just take it, father,
and use it for whatever we need. It's family money."

But he would not hear of this. "No," he said, "put it in the bank,
Prudence, for there will come a time when you will want money very
badly. Then you will have it."

"Let's divide it then,--a hundred for each of us," she urged.

Neither the younger girls nor their father would consent to this. But
when Prudence stood very firm, and pleaded with them earnestly, they
decided to divide it.

"I will deposit two hundred and fifty dollars for the four younger
ones," he said, "and that will leave you as much."

So it was settled, and Prudence was a happy girl when she saw it safely
put away in the bank.

"We can get it whenever we really need it, you know," she told her
father joyfully. "It's such a comfort to know it's there! I feel just
like a millionaire, I am sure. Do you think it would be all right to
send Limber-Limb Grant a letter of thanks for it? We were horribly
scared, but--well, I for one am willing to be horribly scared for such
a lot of money as that!"

CHAPTER XI

ROMANCE COMES

Sometimes, Methodists, or Presbyterians or heret