him.

That evening Ted Neefus called for Bob. They were chums of long
standing.

"Let's take a walk," suggested Ted.

"Aw, that's no fun."

"What'll we do then?"

Bob thought a few seconds.

"I'll tell you," he said. "We'll put a tic-tac on Mrs. Mooney's
window. She lives all alone, and she'll think it's a ghost
rapping."

"Good! Come on. Have you got some string?"

"Sure."

So you see how poorly Bob remembered his promise of the night
before, and with what thoughtlessness he again started to indulge
in a prank--a prank which might throw a nervous woman into
hysterics. Yet in this Bob was just like thousands of other
boys--he "didn't mean anything." The trouble was he did not think.

So the two boys, their heads full of the project of making a
tic-tac, stole quietly through the village streets toward the
cottage of the Widow Mooney.