"TOM!"

No answer.

"TOM!"

No answer.

"What's gone with that boy,  I wonder? You TOM!"

No answer.

The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked
over them about the room; then she put them up and
looked out under them. She seldom or never looked
THROUGH them for so small a thing as a boy; they were
her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built
for "style," not service -- she could have seen through
a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed
for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still
loud enough for the furniture to hear:

"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll --"

She did not finish, for by this time she was bending
down and punching under the bed with the broom,
and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches
with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.

"I never did see the beat of that boy!"

She went to the open door and stood in it and looked
out among the tomato vines and "jimpson" weeds that
constituted the garden. No Tom. So she lifted up
her voice at an angle calculated for distance and
shouted:

"Y-o-u-u TOM!"

There was a slight noise behind her and she turned
just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his
roundabout and arrest his flight.

"There! I might 'a' thought of that closet. What
you been doing in there?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at
your mouth. What IS that truck?"

"I don't know, aunt."

"Well, I know. It's jam -- that's what it is. Forty
times I've said if you didn't let that jam alone I'd skin
you. Hand me that switch."

The switch hovered in the air -- the peril was des-
perate --

"My! Look behind you, aunt!"

The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts
out of danger. The lad fled on the instant, scrambled
up the high board-fence, and disappeared over it.

His aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then
broke into a gentle laugh.

"Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't
he played me tricks enough like that for me to be look-
ing out for him by this time? But old fools is the big-
gest fools thererin there?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at
your mouth. What IS that truck?"

"I don't know, aunt."

"Well, I know. It's jam -- that's what it is. Forty
times I've said if you didn't let that jam alone I'd skin
you. Hand me that switch."

The switch hovered in the air -- the peril was des-
perate --

"My! Look behind you, aunt!"

The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts
out of danger. The lad fled on the instant, scrambled
up the high board-fence, and disappeared over it.

His aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then
broke into a gentle laugh.

"Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't
he played me tricks enough like that for me to be look-
ing out for him by this time? But old fools is the big-
gest fools thererin there?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at
your mouth. What IS that truck?"

"I don't know, aunt."

"Well, I know. It's jam -- that's what it is. Forty
times I've said if you didn't let that jam alone I'd skin
you. Hand me that switch."

The switch hovered in the air -- the peril was des-
perate --

"My! Look behind you, aunt!"

The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts
out of danger. The lad fled on the instant, scrambled
up the high board-fence, and disappear