"It'll be the best thing you ever did," remarked Aaron.

He yawned and looked at his watch.

A surprised look came into his eyes.

"Why!" he exclaimed, "it must be later than that."

He looked again, then put it up to his ear.

"Stopped," he said disgustedly. "I haven't let that watch run down for five years past. And it hasn't run down now. That's some more of Teddy's work. I must have jarred it or bent a wheel or something when I went over into the river."

"Let me have it," said Mr. Rushton, holding out his hand. "I'm pretty handy with watches and perhaps I can get it started."

Aaron handed the timepiece over. It was a heavy, double-cased gold watch, of considerable value, and he set a great deal of store by it. It was of English make, and on the inner case was an engraving of the Lion and the Unicorn. Under this were Aaron's initials.

His brother shook the watch, opened it, and made several attempts to set it going, but all to no purpose.

"I guess it's a job for a jeweler," he said at last regretfully. "Of course, I'll pay whatever it costs to have it fixed."

"By the time you get through settling with Jed Muggs, you won't feel much like paying anything else," retorted Aaron, "Give me the watch and I'll take it down town in the morning and leave it to be mended. Chances are it'll never be as good again.

"I'm dead tired now," and again he yawned. "If you folks don't mind, I guess I'll be getting to bed."

They were only too glad to speed him on his way. n.o.body ever attempted to stop him, when he was ready to retire. It was the one thing he did that met with everybody's approval.

His brother went up with him to see that everything had been made ready for his comfort, and then, bidding him good-night, came back to his wife.

He smiled at her whimsically, and she smiled back at him tearfully.

"Been a good deal of a siege," he commented.

"Hasn't it?" she agreed. "But, oh, Mansfield, whatever in the world are we going to do about Teddy?"

He frowned and studied the points of his shoes.

"Blest if I know," he pondered. "The young rascal has been in a lot of sc.r.a.pes, but this is the limit. I don't wonder that Aaron feels irritable. Of course, he rubs it in a little too much, but you'll have to admit, my dear, that he has a good deal of justice on his side. It was a mighty reckless thing for Teddy to do.

"I wonder," he went on thoughtfully, "if perhaps we haven't been a bit too lax in our discipline, Agnes. Too much of the 'velvet glove' and too little of the 'iron hand,' eh? What do you think?"

"Perhaps--a little," she a.s.sented dubiously. Then, defensively, she added: "But, after all, where do you find better boys anywhere than ours? Fred scarcely gives us a particle of trouble, and as for Teddy"--here she floundered a little--"of course, he gets into mischief at times, but he has a good heart and he's just the dearest boy," she ended, in a burst of maternal affection.

"How about that boarding school idea?" suggested Mr. Rushton.

"I don't like it at all," said Mrs. Rushton. "I simply can't bear to think of our boys a hundred miles away from home. I'd be worrying all the time for fear that something had happened to them or was going to happen. And think how quiet the house would be with them out of it."

"I know," agreed her husband, "I'd feel a good deal that way myself.

Still, if it's for the boys' good----"

But here they were interrupted by a commotion on the stairs, and as they rose to their feet, Aaron came bouncing into the room. His coat and vest and collar and tie were off, but he was too stirred up to bother about his appearance. He was in a state of great agitation.

"What's the matter?" they asked in chorus.

"Matter enough," snarled Aaron. "I was just getting ready for bed, when I thought of some papers in the breast pocket of my coat. I just thought I'd take a last look to make sure they were all right, but when I put my hand in the pocket, the papers weren't there. What do you make of that now?" and he glared at them as though they had a guilty knowledge of the papers and had better hand them over forthwith.

"Papers!" exclaimed Mrs. Rushton, her heart sinking at this new complaint. "What papers were they?"

"I hope they weren't very valuable?" said Mr. Rushton.

"Valuable!" almost shrieked Aaron Rushton. "I should say they were valuable. There was a mortgage and there were three notes of hand and the transcript of a judgment that I got in a court action a little while ago. I can't collect on any of them, unless I have the papers to show.

I'm in a pretty mess!" he groaned, as he went around the room like a wild man.

"We'll make a careful search for them everywhere," said Mrs. Rushton.

"They must be somewhere around the house."

"House, nothing!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Aaron. "I know well enough where they are.

They're down in the river somewhere, and I'll never clap eyes on them again. They must have fallen out of my pocket when I jumped. Oh, if I just had the handling of that imp"--and his fingers writhed in a way that boded no good to Teddy, if that lively youth were luckless enough to be turned over to his uncle for punishment.

"I can't tell you how sorry I am, Aaron," his brother a.s.sured him.

"We'll have a most careful search made at the place where the accident happened, the first thing to-morrow morning. I'll also put up the offer of a reward in the post office. The papers are not of much value to any one except you, and if somebody has found them, they'll be glad enough to bring them to you. In the meantime, we'll take one more look about the house."

But the search was fruitless, and, at last, Aaron, still growling like a grizzly bear, went reluctantly to his room to await developments on the morrow.

In the meantime, Teddy, the cause of it all, although cut off from the rest of the household, had shared in the general gloom. He was devotedly attached to his father and mother, and was sincerely sorry that he had so distressed them. He would have given a good deal if he had never yielded to his sudden impulse of the afternoon.

Fred had spent most of the evening with him, and had done his level best to cheer him up. He had succeeded to some extent, but, after he had left him and gone to his own room, Teddy again felt the weight of a heavy depression.

It must be admitted that not all of this came from conscience. Some of it was due to hunger.

He had never felt so hungry in his life. And it seemed an endless time from then till breakfast the next morning.

He had just turned out his light, and was about to slip into bed when he heard a soft knock on his door. He opened it and peered out into the dark hall.

"It's me, honey," came a low voice. "Take dis an' don't say nuffin'."

The "dis" was a leg of chicken and a big cut of peach pie!

The door closed, and old Martha went puffing slowly to her room in the attic.

"Ah doan't care," she said to herself defiantly. "Ef it wus right fer de ravuns ter take food ter de prophet 'Lijuh in der wil'erness, et's right fer me ter keep mah po' lam' frum starvin'. So, dere, now!"

CHAPTER VIII

A FRUITLESS SEARCH