fellers livin' high, an' I'm goin' 'round jest about ready to die."

"Well, that ain't our fault. I don't want to have a row with you, Dan,
'cause I s'pose you think you're helpin' us out. But I tell you you
ain't, an' carryin' on in this way only makes matters worse. Why can't
you go back to town an' leave us alone?"

"Why can't I? 'Cause I promised the fellers I'd see you through, an' I'm
goin' to do it. Besides, by this time folks know I'm on the case, an'
would arrest me 'bout as quick as they would you."

"Do you count on three of us livin' on one poor little old woman like
aunt Dorcas? Ain't you ashamed to hang 'round here when there's no need
of it, tryin' to make us steal something for you to eat?"

"There's no reason for your stealin'. I've been thinkin' over what Plums
said 'bout that bed, an' the custard pie, an' I don't see why I
shouldn't get my share. You could tell her I am your pardner, an' in
hard luck."

Now Joe was positively alarmed. If Master Fernald had made up his mind
that he desired to become an inmate of aunt Dorcas's family, he would
most likely do everything in his power to bring about such a result; and
the happiness which had been Joe's because the little woman had decided
to give the princess a temporary home, suddenly vanished.

Rather than ask aunt Dorcas to support three boys, as well as a child,
he would go his way alone, after telling her exactly the truth of the
matter.

"I'll loaf 'round here till 'long towards night, an' then I'll start up
to the house through the lane," Dan said, believing Joe did not dare
oppose him. "That'll give you a chance to tell her what hard luck I'm
in; an' lay it on as thick as you know how, so's she'll be willin' to
take me. Plum says this is about the softest snap he ever struck, an' I
want my share of it."

Joe remained silent while one might have counted ten, trying to restrain
his anger, and then he said, quietly, but firmly:

"Aunt Dorcas is too good a woman for us to beat in such a way as that,
an' I promise, Dan Fernald, that if you show your head on the lane
to-night, or try to come into the house, I'll first tell her the whole
thing, an' then go straight to the city. I ain't givin' you any fairy
story; I mean every word. There's no need of your starvin' 'round here,
'cause you can go back to town. The folks there don't think you're sich
an awful big detective that they're goin' to keep their eyes on you all
the time. I'll bet there a