y, and
finding she could do nothing to appease Fan, Polly devoted her mind to
her cookery till the nuts were safely in, and a nice panful set in the
yard to cool. A few bangs at the locked door, a few threats of vengeance
from the prisoner, such as setting the house on fire, drinking up the
wine, and mashing the jelly-pots, and then all was so quiet that the
girls forgot him in the exciting crisis of their work.

"He can't possibly get out anywhere, and as soon we 've cut up the
candy, we 'll unbolt the door and run. Come and get a nice dish to put
it in," said Fan, when Polly proposed to go halves with Tom, lest he
should come bursting in somehow, and seize the whole.

When they came down with the dish in which to set forth their treat,
and opened the back-door to find it, imagine their dismay on discovering
that it was gone, pan, candy, and all, utterly and mysteriously gone!

A general lament arose, when a careful rummage left no hopes; for
the fates had evidently decreed at candy was not to prosper on this
unpropitious night.

"The hot pan has melted and sunk in the snow perhaps," said Fanny,
digging into the drift where it was left.

"Those old cats have got it, I guess," suggested Maud, too much
overwhelmed by this second blow to howl as usual.

"The gate is n't locked, and some beggar has stolen it. I hope it will
do him good," added Polly, turning from her exploring expedition.

"If Tom could get out, I should think he 'd carried it off; but not
being a rat, he can't go through the bits of windows; so it was n't
him," said Fanny, disconsolately, for she began to think this double
loss a punishment for letting angry passions rise, "Let 's open the door
and tell him about it," proposed Polly.

"He 'll crow over us. No; we 'll open it and go to bed, and he can come
out when he likes. Provoking boy! if he had n't plagued us so, we should
have had a nice time."

Unbolting the cellar door, the girls announced to the invisible captive
that they were through, and then departed much depressed. Half-way up
the second flight, they all stopped as suddenly as if they had seen
a ghost; for looking over the banisters was Tom's face, crocky but
triumphant, and in either hand a junk of candy, which he waved above
them as he vanished, with the tantalizing remark, "Don't you wish you
had some?"

"How in the world did he get out?" cried Fanny, steadying herself after
a start that nearly sent all three tumbling down stai