The Portland daily press., 1882-12-25

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there Was the sealskin sacque that Eleanor had
been signing for ever since she could rscolect
and that now everybody had joined in giving
her; and the brooch for grandmother of braid
of gray hair set in seed pearls; and there was
Rosy's new doll, as big as she was; and a full
cap, yes, fur cap for himself, for if L-a-w-r-s-
nee didn't spell Ladd, what did it spell? And
there were some gold bangles for Laura-only
Will and Harry could afford to make presents
like that,-he should himself, some day And
a lace pin in the shape of a fan, made of some
thing like sky-blue sealing-wax-La was
not acquainted with turquose-for Sophia
and what was this for Sophia, too? A pair OF
great white diamond earrings, winking and
blazing like the sun in the dew. Laddy start
ed back, and then looked again in virtuous in
dlgnation. Was Sophia engaged to anybody
without telling him? Was that tall, dark Syl-
vester fellow coming here to take Sophia
away? And Sophia was his favorite sister,
And here were presents from his people to So
| phia, as their little labels said-a great pearl
RUG from the Sylvester mother, ana curious
piece OF paper, folded like his composition on
the Four Seasons, from the father; he opened
1.-THE had seen bonds before United States
bond for thousand dollars. Well, that was a
great go! Grandmother's gold thimble, the
smoked pearl pencil-cases, the silver pocket
knives, the slippers, the smoking-caps and
afghans, and silk socks, and all the rest, fell
into insignifcance.
And nobody had told himl As the thought
REQUIRED he began to feel exceedingly wide
awake; he was of no account at all in the fam
| lily; even Muff and Tippet, the cats, knew
more OF what was going on. And thinking il
over he shrank back unconsciously into the yet
warm corner of the fireplace, where he wa;
quite in shadow, while the great moonbeam
that had walked him fell into tho room and lay
over the two tables and all the beautiful OBJ
iects glittering there, struck those stones spark
ling like imperishable drops of dew, that pear
white as concentrated moonsh inc ITSELF the
blood-red onyxes, the turquoises, blue as Elean.
or's eyes, struck and glorifed all that store
where the love was even more than the treas
ure. By the merest accident, as Laddy looked
along this display, his eye fell upon the mirror
and he saw the whole thing family repeated
with dim colors and dark flashes and the hoai
frost of the moonshine. And in another mo-
ment he had seen something else; he had seen
the figure, the shadow, the vague outline of a
man IN the doorway!
Laddy was a born fighter. To spring and
grab the poker, and to confront the man
crouching, with the mouth of his bag just
opened to sweep all the precious things into it
took him but an instant. "You clear out" he
CRIED 'iust the way you camel Or if l CAM
kill you myself, I'll make such noise that
somebody else will! There's the man in the
house, and my father, and my big brothers
and''- the fellow, who did not know lady had
carefully closed the door leading from the
stairway, lest his own proceedings should be
heard, had turned and fled without waiting to
hear the whole list OF his enemies; the sight Of
Laddy, whose voice could raise the house, was
enemy enough He tried to hit Laddg a chr
first, but Laddy lodged it and followed him
brandishing his poker with one hand and tuck
ing up his little nightgown with the other, anf
putting down and hasping after aim the win.
dow through which the burglar leaped.
Nobody ever felt more like a man than Lad
dy did at that moment The bedrooms were
quite remote, the inner hall door was closed
and people were tired and sleeping soundly, 81
nobody had heard him, or, if any one had
heard, it was thought he was talking in his
sleep, and thus he alone and by himself had
put housebreaker TO flight He had put q
housebreaker to flight, and yet his father would
not let him have an air gun He went back to
the place of The presents, and there they still
| oh o1,,a1. 4
sweep them into bag. Somebody would b,
trying again; it would never be given up so.
He would wait while and see what woulC
happen.
What very imprudent thing it was, afte
all, to leave such yaluables unguarded in thi
way, thought Laddy, as he again surveyed
them all. What if somebody had stolen them
it would have been pretty how d'you do
People as thoughtess and careless as this real
ly deserved to lose. But how that man RAM
just iukirgl And Laddy doubled up will
silent laughter at the recollection. And mean
while, across all these reflections and thil
laughing, an awful shadow was stalking
for Laddy still looking around, was SLOWLY
coming to a realizing sense of the fact tina
there was no bicycle anywhere leaning VI
against the wall for him!
No; no bicycle. After all that he had hintet
and spoken outright, and even begged
bicycle. And then he grew hot all over, and
very angry. He had never known what it wal
before to be very angry, it seemed. He coulC
not have told whether it was minute or al
hour he stood there and ground his teeth, bu
when he saw more clearly, his mental articula
ton was repeating. the last words he had dis
tine tly thought, without acknowledging tn
re ason of his anger even in his inner con
seriousness. Certainly people as careless as thi
deserved to lose. What if anybody-and thel
an idea struck Laddy,-wbat is anybody CAV
this family scare, and made them think the,
had los their Chrstmasing For his part h
had lost all the Christmasng be cared for
With Laddy thing was no sooner said thai
done. There was still five or ten minutes O
good light from the moon. He remembered
that one of the old-fashioned white dado panels
in the side of the chimney-place was a close
opening with a sunken ring, where hearth
brush and kindlings were once kept although
disused now. He went and pulled at the ring
1t was so long since it had been opened that i
stuck. He took the new silver paper knife
that was to be Papa's tomorrow, but which, ii
Lady's mind, was nobody's just yet, and ran i
along the cracks and pulled again, 1t opened
| with such force as to throw him on his back
although, owing to the spring in its hinge, il
| Immediately shut again. But it had disclosed
| the most charming hiding-place in the world