exclamation.

Four of the largest lumps of coal were missing!

There was no doubt of it; he had marked them lying on the top of the
heap, and distinguished by their unusual size.

"They are certainly gone," said Prescott to himself.

But it was not thieves. There in the snow he perceived the tracks of
small feet leading from the coal-heap to the back door of the house.

Prescott felt a mighty sense of triumph, and gave utterance in a low
voice to the unpoetic exclamation:

"They had to knuckle!"

But there was no smoke coming from the chimney, and he knew they had
just taken the coal. "They!" It was "she," as there was only one trail
in the snow, but he wondered which one. He was curiously inquisitive on
this point, and he would have given much to know, but he did not dream
of forcing an entrance into the house; yes "forcing" was now the word.

He was afraid to linger, as he did not wish to be seen by anybody either
inside or outside the cottage, and went away; but he came back in an
hour--that is, he came to the corner of the street, where he could see
the feeble column of smoke rising once more from the chimney of the
little wooden house.

Then, beholding this faint and unintentional signal, he smote himself
upon the knee, giving utterance again to his feelings of triumph, and
departed, considering himself a young man of perception and ability. His
amiability lasted so long that his mother congratulated him upon it,
and remarked that he must have had good news, but Prescott gallantly
attributed his happiness to her presence alone. She said nothing in
reply, but kept her thoughts to herself.

Inasmuch as the mind grows upon what it consumes, Prescott was soon
stricken with a second thought, and the next day at twilight he bought
as obscurely as he could a Virginia-cured ham and carried it away,
wrapped in brown paper, under his arm.

Fortunately he met no one who took notice, and he reached the little
street unobserved. Here he deliberated with himself awhile, but
concluded at last to put it on the back door step.

"When they come for coal," he said to himself, "they will see it, or if
they don't they will fall over it, if some sneak thief doesn't get it
first."

He noticed, dark as it was, that the little trail in the snow had grown,
and in an equal ratio the size of the coal pile had diminished.

Then he crept away, looking about him with great care lest he be seen,
but some intuition sent him back,