without any delay, just by virtue of his own cheery manner.

Bob looked as though he had lost his last friend. He sighed and then
started to tell just what ailed him.

"Seems like I've grown three years older since I suddenly failed to
remember about that particular letter father gave me to be sure to
post before the afternoon mail went out. I had some others, you see,
two of my own, and three that Mom gave me. I can recollect shoving
them in the shute one by one; but for the life of me, Jack, I can't
say positively that the one going across to England was with the
bunch. Oh! it gave me a cold chill when I first had that awful thought
I'd lost it on the way. I remembered pulling something out of my
pocket when crossing that shortcut path, and that's why I hurried
there with my light, hoping to discover it in the grass."

Jack understood what lay back of this. He chanced to know Bob's father
was reckoned a very stern man, and that he had grown weary of Bob's
customary way of forgetting things, or doing them in a slipshod
fashion. He even knew that Mr. Jeffries had laid down the law to his
son, and promised to punish him severely the next time he showed such
carelessness.

"It's too bad, Bob, of course it is, but then don't despair yet," Jack
told the other boy. "There is always a good chance that you did put
that particular letter in the post-office. We'll try to find out if
Mr. Dickerson, the postmaster, or his assistant, chanced to notice a
letter addressed to England. It must have been of considerable
importance, I take it from what you've said already."