iO - THE DOGBERRY BUNCH,

 

stopping-place. A stoop composed of rotting boards
was in front of it, and a different colored rag ap-
peared at every window, from which nearly all sash
and glass were broken. ;

John White hurried to the “ Beehive” to ask them
about little Arthur. The Bees, although their neigh-
bors took so little interest in them, felt a lazy interest
in their neighbors, and were generally peeping out of
the “Beehive” or buzzing on the stoop, to see what

might be going on in the town. To-day being Sun- |

day and no trains running, they were out in strong
force, smoking, and blinking their cadaverous eyes _
gaunt, nerveless-looking men, dirty and only half
alive. Women’s voices, scolding, made the inside of
the “Beehive” ring. Some playful young Bees
played marbles and pulled hair at one end of the
stoop.

“How d’ye do,” said easy John White to the men
who pulled out their pipes and listened with calm pat-
ronage to their wealthier neighbor. “ Have you seen
anything of a little fellow around here? The Dog-
berry children have lost their baby — about three
years old — chap in petticoats.”

“When — did — they — lose — him?” inquired
one of the Bees with a slow drawl: they were above
excitement. ;

“Missed him a couple of hours or so ago, but
don’t remember seeing him since breakfast. One of
them dressed him for Sunday-school before break-
fast; and then one of the boys got run off on a
freight, and it excited them so they forgot about the
little fellow.”

The Bees pulled their pipes silently, as if they had
all found first-rate honey-tubes.

“ He had on a little linen dress,” continued John ;
“thinnish child ; blue eyes, light: I expect you know
him. I’m afraid he’s found the creek! You haven't
seen anything of him?”

“ Saw —a— little — young one,” volunteered one

deliberate drone, “ go — past — with —a—woman —
’s morning. Didn’t —stop — here.”

“ 7 —saw — him,” added another Bee.. “ Thought
— she —was — playin’—with him. Movers —over
— in — the — woods — last — night.”

“Light child — linen dress?’”’ asked John White.

“Ve—es,” drawled the Bee,

“The Dogberry baby, do you think?”

“JT — thought — it — was — him.”

 

John White made haste to carry this news, and
several men got upon horses and galloped in the di-
rection the movers’ caravan was said to have taken.
As he supposed, the strollers were only agueish. In-
dianians trailing away to some point farther west.
Their wagon was covered with canvas stretched on
hoops, and drawn by horses paired like David and
Goliah, fearfully thin, and Goliah wheezing as if every
breath must be his last. Inside the wagon cowered
the usual hollow-cheeked settler, his care-worn wife
and fifteen children, in various stages of chills-and-
fever. It was too great a satire to suppose such a
man had picked up the missing boy, but the men in-
quired if he had seen a stray child. The settler had
not seen any stray child. His wife, kind soul, was
full of sympathy when she heard a child was lost,
and counted her fifteen over with more thankful
heart. x

They hunted New Town and Old Town, they
dragged the creek above and below the dam, they
searched the woods: the long summer afternoon wore
away and night came, and still little Arthur Dogberry
was not found.

CHAPTER IV.
THE RAILROAD MUTINY.

Wuen Jack awoke in the caboose, he was aston-
ished by a roaring and rumbling and also by the
motion which shook him to and fro. He had heard
the storm in the night, but this.was not the sound of
astorm. His bristling hair fairly stood on end as he
recognized the grinding whirr of wheels. Opening a
shutter, he poked his head into the dark and dodged
back just in time to avoid the scaffolding of a bridge
they were passing.

“Ves, sir!” said Jack, sitting down to his convic-
tions, “ this caboose has started on its travels, and has
invited Mr. J. Dogberry to go along. Thank you,
ma'am. My health was needing a little trip. I det
they'll laugh at home! Loo’ll never forget it! She'll
keep it to pay me back for the Cardiff giantess with !
She said I’d get run off. I wonder what Arty’ll do?
Which way is this train going?”

He opened the door at one end, and saw a blank
wall of freight running in front of him; he opened