"John Halifax had better hold his tongue."

I held mine.

My father puffed away in silence till I came to bid him good-night.
I think the sound of my crutches on the floor stirred him out of a
long meditation, in which his ill-humour had ebbed away.

"Where didst thee go out to-day, Phineas?--thee and the lad I sent."

"To the Mythe:" and I told him the incident that had happened there.
He listened without reply.

"Wasn't it a brave thing to do, father?"

"Um!"--and a few meditative puffs. "Phineas, the lad thee hast such
a hankering after is a good lad--a very decent lad--if thee doesn't
make too much of him. Remember; he is but my servant; thee'rt my
son--my only son."

Alas! my poor father, it was hard enough for him to have such an
"only son" as I.

In the middle of the night--or else to me, lying awake, it seemed so-
-there was a knocking at our hall door. I slept on the ground flat,
in a little room opposite the parlour. Ere I could well collect my
thoughts, I saw my father pass, fully dressed, with a light in his
hand. And, man of peace though he was, I was very sure I saw in the
other--something which always lay near his strong box, at his bed's
head at night. Because ten years ago a large sum had been stolen