Part 35 (1/2)

”Why, no”

Mrs Thatcher turned pale, and sank into a pew, just as Aunt Polly, talking briskly with a friend, passed by Aunt Polly said:

”Goodot a boy that's turned up ht--one of you And now he's afraid to coot to settle with him”

Mrs Thatcher shook her head feebly and turned paler than ever

”He didn't stay with us,” said Mrs Harper, beginning to look uneasy A marked anxiety came into Aunt Polly's face

”Joe Harper, have you seen ?”

”No'm”

”When did you see him last?”

Joe tried to remember, but was not sure he could say The people had stoppeduneasiness took possession of every countenance Children were anxiously questioned, and young teachers They all said they had not noticed whether Tom and Becky were on board the ferryboat on the ho if any one wasman finally blurted out his fear that they were still in the cave!

Mrs Thatcher swooned away Aunt Polly fell to crying and wringing her hands

The alarroup, from street to street, and within fiveand the whole toas up! The Cardiff Hill episode sank into instant insignificance, the burglars were forgotten, horses were saddled, skiffs were manned, the ferryboat ordered out, and before the horror was half an hour old, two hundred hroad and river toward the cave

All the long afternoon the village seemed empty and dead Many women visited Aunt Polly and Mrs Thatcher and tried to comfort them They cried with them, too, and that was still better than words All the tedious night the toaited for news; but when thedawned at last, all the word that came was, ”Send more candles--and send food”

Mrs Thatcher was ales of hope and encouragement from the cave, but they conveyed no real cheer

The old Welshrease, smeared with clay, and almost worn out He found Huck still in the bed that had been provided for him, and delirious with fever The physicians were all at the cave, so the Widow Douglas cae of the patient She said she would do her best by hiood, bad, or indifferent, he was the Lord's, and nothing that was the Lord's was a thing to be neglected The Welshood spots in him, and thesaid:

”You can depend on it That's the Lord's mark He don't leave it off

He never does Puts it somewhere on every creature that comes from his hands”

Early in the forenoon parties of jaded est of the citizens continued searching All the news that could be gained was that re ransacked that had never been visited before; that every corner and crevice was going to be thoroughly searched; that wherever one wandered through thehither and thither in the distance, and shoutings and pistol-shots sent their hollow reverberations to the ear down the sombre aisles In one place, far from the section usually traversed by tourists, the names ”BECKY & TOM” had been found traced upon the rocky ith candle-srease-soiled bit of ribbon Mrs Thatcher recognized the ribbon and cried over it She said it was the last relic she should ever have of her child; and that no other memorial of her could ever be so precious, because this one parted latest fro body before the awful death came Some said that now and then, in the cave, a far-away speck of light would glilorious shout would burst forth and a score ofdisappointment always followed; the children were not there; it was only a searcher's light

Three dreadful days and nights dragged their tedious hours along, and the village sank into a hopeless stupor No one had heart for anything

The accidental discovery, just made, that the proprietor of the Temperance Tavern kept liquor on his premises, scarcely fluttered the public pulse, tremendous as the fact was In a lucid interval, Huck feebly led up to the subject of taverns, and finally asked--di had been discovered at the Temperance Tavern since he had been ill

”Yes,” said the

Huck started up in bed, wildeyed:

”What? What was it?”

”Liquor!--and the place has been shut up Lie down, child--what a turn you did give --only just one--please! Was it Tom Sawyer that found it?”