mother said May and I were not to go. So I
slipped out and ran through the orchard to look at the Station, and
sure enough! the stone was rolled back, the door open and the can lying
on the floor. I slid down and picked it up, and there was one sheet of
paper money left in it stuck to the sides. It was all plain as a
pikestaff. Leon must have thought the money had been spent, and showed
the traveller the Station, just to brag, and he guessed there might be
something there, and had gone while we were at church and taken it. He
had all night the start of us, and he might have a horse waiting
somewhere, and be almost to Illinois by this time, and if the money
belonged to father, there would be no Christmas; and if it happened to
be the money the county gave him to pay the men who worked the roads
every fall, and Miss Amelia, or collections from the church, he'd have
to pay it back, even if it put him in debt; and if he died, they might
take the land, like he said; and where on earth was Leon? Knew what
he'd done and hiding, I bet! He needed the thrashing he would get that
time, and I started out to hunt him and have it over with, so mother
wouldn't be uneasy about him yet; and then I remembered Laddie had said
Leon hadn't been in bed all night. He was gone too!

Maybe he wanted to try life in a city, where the traveller had said
everything was so grand; but he must have known that he'd kill his
mother if he went, and while he didn't kiss her so often, and talk so
much as some of us, I never could see that he didn't run quite as fast
to get her a chair or save her a step. He was so slim and light he
could race for the doctor faster than Laddie or father, either one. Of
course he loved his mother, just as all of us did; he never, never
could go away and not let her know about it. If he had gone, that
watchful-eyed man, who was lame only part of the time, had taken the
gun and made him go. I thought I might as well save the money he'd
overlooked, so I gripped it tight in my hand, and put it in my apron
pocket, the same as I had Laddie's note to the Princess, and started to
the barn, on the chance that Leon might be hiding. I knew precious
well I would, if I were in his place. So I hunted the granaries, the
haymow, the stalls, then I stood on the threshing floor and cried:
"Leon! If you're hiding come quick! Mother will be sick with worrying
and father will be so glad to see you, he won't do anything much. Do