The
letter put grandmother in a great state of mind, and she declared
indignantly that she would not send it. In truth, we were all certain
that now Jim would squander his savings in the worst possible way; but
when another letter came, again demanding the book, the old Squire
decided that we must send it.
"The poor fellow needs a guardian," he said. "But he hasn't one; he is
his own man and has a right to his property."
With hot tears of resentment grandmother, accompanied by Theodora, went
to the wagon-house cellar to get the book. After some minutes they
returned, exclaiming that they could not find it!
No little stir ensued; what had become of it? For the moment Addison and
I actually suspected that grandmother and Theodora had hidden the book
again, in order to avoid sending it; but a few words with Theodora,
aside, convinced us that the book had really disappeared from the
cellar.
The old Squire was greatly disturbed. "Ruth," he said to grandmother,
"are you sure you have not put it somewhere else?"
Grandmother declared that she had not. None the less, they searched in
all the previous hiding places of the book and continued looking for it
until after ten o'clock that night.
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