The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-07-22
(Continued.)

"Why, I waited a half hour, Cal" she said, land then, when I thought you wouldn't be back for awhile, 1 sent him downtown-I sent him to the v1llage"-
 Caleb seemed fairly to shrink,
 You sent him down to the village? ?" be echoed. Did he-did he change his clothesg'
 "For some eggs," Sarah rounded out the sentence. And of course he didn't" Suddenly her brothers face alarmed her. "Cal,p she exclaimed, 'I haven't done anything I shouldn't have done, have I?'
 Caleb turned wry face toward Ali son. 'In-that-outftr' he groaned. "Down to the village, and it's lumber town! He's gone, and if he doesn't have to fight his way back then T'-
 Sarah's alarm changed to fear in- stantly. She stepped out upon the porch.
 They sat and waited, and in due course of time the boy returned. As he appeared at the gate Sarah, with a strange choking sound in her throat, half rose and then dropped weakly back Into her chair. And even to Alli- son, who had fondly looked forward to the worst, the little suit with the pret- ty ruffed cuffs was an unbelievable wreck. The coat had been ripped from hem to collar and dangled loose upon either side as the boy advanced toward them, the knees of the trousers were split till the bare skin showed through beneath, and those portions of the fab ric which were not incrusted with dirt were liberally o'erspread with egg.
 After one stricken glance at the spec tacle Sarah tottered to her feet and re- treated none too steadily into the house.
 "Just what does this mean?" Caleb faltered. Where have you been?"
 He hardly recognized the boys voice.
 q been daown to the city, Steve slurred the words. T been daown to git Miss Sarah dozen eggs, and l run into trouble daown there a.gittin' 'em."
 You'd better go upstairs and get into your old clothes," Caleb advised him then. And I'll get you something less
 
 But the boy stood rigid still
 "Will you," he asked, twill you give me another quarter now?"
 "A quarter" echoed Caleb slowly. even while he reached into his pocket and handed the coin to the boy. 'Now. what do you Here, where are you going now?"
 "Why, Pm goin' back daown to the city" he grated out. "I'm goin' back after Miss Sarah's eggsw
 And he went, and when he returned the creases in the paper bag which held his purchase were as fresh as when it had left the grocer's counter.
 "Well, I'm-Tm hangedr' Allison murmured, after the boy had entered the house. "I'm hanged! You'll have to bring that youngster over. Cal and introduce him to the children"
 Acting upon Dexter's suggestion. the man took Steve the very net day and presented him to the Shildren who were guests in the big stucco and timber house: Little. shy, transparent skinned Mary Graves and Garret Deve- reau and Archibald Wickersham-the Right Honorable Archie. But from the very first Steve's lack of enthusi- asm for their company impressed itself upon Caleb, As Q matter of fact, the boy did cross over and join in their games the first day or two. but 1t was only after Caleb himself had suggested #. And more often than not he would be back again before an hour had pass ed, to sit silent and moody.
 But it needed no word of Caleb's to keep Steve at home. Without some suggestion to urge him, the latter showed no inclination to leave his own yard, and yet he would sit, too, for hours upon the top step of the veran- da, staring in the direction of the stuc- 70 lodge and listening to the voices be- hind the high hedge. More and more often Garry Devereau came over and joined him Instead. and together the afr made almost daily trips down to the mills, A quick intimacy had grown up between the two boys, an intima- cy which seemed all the stranger to Caleb because of the contrast between them.
 From the beginning Steve had evinced an unsuitable appetite for books; he started in to devour every thing upon which he could lay his hands, and the Hunter library was lined with well stocked cases. But 1t was the history volumes that drew him most. With fat tome upon his knees be would sit for hours in cor ner upon the floor. his eyes glued to the pages. And one day. two weeks after the occurrence of the eggs, he came to Sarah with shy question, . book in one hand. After she had caught the drift of his query Sarah took the volume and found that he had been reading of the fabulous deeds of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
 Steve went back to his reading after she had finished, but ever and again that morning his eyes, blank with pre- occupation, wandered from the type; ever and again his ears seemed to be straining to catch the echo of childish trebles from the yard beyond the hedge, And after dinner Caleb was