s the truth, Plums; but I can't make other folks believe it,
not even you, on account of that advertisement. Everybody says I must
have been up to something crooked, else the lawyers wouldn't try so hard
to get hold of me."

Plums could give no consolation. Although he had never known Joe to do
anything which was not absolutely just and honest, he was convinced that
some wrong had been committed, otherwise the advertisement would never
have appeared.

Joe lay down on the grass, under one of the apple-trees, and, despite
the sorrow in his heart, the chirping of the birds, the soft murmur of
the leaves as they were moved to and fro by the breeze, and the hum of
insects, soon lulled him to sleep.

The sun was far down in the west when he awakened, and, leaping to his
feet, surprised that he had spent nearly the entire afternoon in
slumber, he looked around for Master Plummer.

That young gentleman was sitting with his back against the trunk of a
tree, looking idly up at the fleecy clouds, while an expression of
discontent overspread his face.

"I guess I must have had a pretty long nap," Joe said, as if to make an
apology for his indolence. "I don't believe I ever did a thing like that
before. Hasn't aunt Dorcas called us yet?"

"Not as I know," Master Plummer replied, curtly.

"Then she an' the princess must be sleepin' as sound as I was. Of course
you'd heard if she'd called?"

"I haven't been here all the time."

"Where have you been?"

Master Plummer hesitated an instant, and then replied, speaking rapidly,
as if to prevent Joe from interrupting him:

"I saw Dan Fernald sneakin' 'round down by the road, an' went to see
him. We've been talkin' this thing over, Joe, an' it don't seem to me as
though there was any need for you to go off with the princess. You might
walk 'round the country for a week without findin' so good a place as
this. I'm sure aunt Dorcas had rather keep half a dozen boys than let
that youngster go, now she's begun to like her."

"I wish I'd known Dan Fernald had come here. It was in the agreement he
should keep away, an' I'd 'a' pounded him if I'd caught him sneakin'
'round."

"But, say, why can't you keep quiet, an' let him do as he's a mind to?
Perhaps aunt Dorcas won't take him in, after all."

"I ain't goin' to say a word against him; but I shall tell her the whole
story to-morrow morning, an' then clear out."

"Even if she wants you to stay?"

"Yes; 'cause I'd be ashamed to