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belted it, intending then to take off my heavy-nailed boots and put on a pair of slippers. But I remembered that my father was on horseback, and that on his return I ought to be ready to put up and look after his horse. Whether he would or would not return before my mother and sisters was very uncertain, for he had gone many miles from home. So keeping my .boots on as well as my smock, I sat down in my father's chair and took up a Christmas number of a weekly that my mother had left for me on the table.

The barking of our sheep-dog, Toby, suddenly reminded me that, though mother did not allow him to sleep in the house, she would not mind my bringing him in for an hour or so, in order to keep me company. I would go and unchain him and invite him to enjoy the blaze of the Christmas log.

Imagine my astonishment when as I stepped out into the night - a mild night enough, but starless a figure suddenly appeared out of the darkness and inquired shortly, "Anybody at home here?

"No," I said incautiously, "nobody but myself." "Father, mother, and servants all out?"

"Yes," said I truthfully.

"Thought so," rejoined the man.

Then he gave a low whistle, and out of the darkness stepped his companion.

"The coast is clear," remarked the first tramp for, as they pushed me forward into the light of the lamp, I thought they looked more like tramps than burglars.

"Now, my little man," began the leader, as he hustled me roughly into the house, "if you scream out, your life is at stake. Have a good look at this bludgeon. Now, if you are wise, just keep quiet." Each of them held me now by an arm.

"Better tie him in a chair," said one of them. "No," growled the other, "that's too comfortable. I'll show you how to make him quiet in harness."

We were in our homely and holly-decked houseplace, and the man who had last spoken took hold of me suddenly and forced me down upon my knees with my face to the window curtains. While he held my arms, the other ruffian lashed my ankles together with a long piece of cord; then, forcing my hands behind my back, the two of them crossed my wrists and tied them together so tightly that it was all I could do not to cry out. Even then, they were not satisfied. Looking round the room, they espied the leather strap I had just taken off, and this they pushed over my already fettered wrists, and made it fast to the cord round my ankles.

"He'll do now," one of them said; "he can't stand on his legs he can only roll over."

.

In spite of their terrible and reiterated threats, though I did not dare to move my body, I could not help turning my head a little to try to see what they were doing. Of course they were opening drawers, looking into cupboards, and trying doors. To be very candid, I was praying and crying.

Absurd as it may seem, I was really more concerned as to their taking the Christmas fare in the larder than fearful of their carrying off the silver and the valuables. Of money, I knew that there was not much in the house, for my father never kept more than he needed for wages and for current expenses. What silver we possessed was both old and solid.

By what I could overhear, they were in quest of food and drink. The larder was so close to the kitchen that I knew they would find it easily enough, and it was so stocked with good things that I scarcely thought they would be able to carry away the whole of its contents. If only they would spare the turkey, I thought!

They wanted food and drink, and apparently they wanted it for immediate consumption.

To my surprise, I heard one of the men exclaim they had already found the pantry

Bill!"

"Here we are,

I dared not look around, but I fancied the men were bringing cold beef, bread, cheese, and mince

pies into the kitchen. At any rate, they soon settled down to steady eating and drinking. For a time they seemed to forget my very existence.

Meanwhile, the pain in my legs and arms caused by the savage tightness of my bonds became almost unbearable. To kneel for such a long time, and in so constrained a position, was bad enough, but the aching throbbing of my limbs was torture. Yet, though sorely tempted to roll over and to lie on one side, I had sense enough to see that such a movement would only have the effect of making taut the strap that connected my wrists with my ankles, and of thus increasing the pressure of the cords that bound my hands and feet.

Now vilely hilarious, the two tramps began to throw bread crusts and cheese parings at me. But, as I took no notice of these missiles, they soon tired of such tame sport. Stepping up to where I knelt with my face to the window curtains, one of them took hold of me and swung me right around facing the table at which the other one sat.

"Nice lad, isn't he?" asked the man who had turned me around.

"Yes," said the other one. "It seems a pity to treat him so cruelly on Christmas Eve."

My swimming eyes turned from one coarse, dirty face to the other; certainly there was no ray of pity

in either. Such villainous-looking wretches might be capable of anything. During some terrible moments I thought of all the sins of my life, and told the good God over and over again how sorry I was for them.

"Now, my lad, you just tell us where the cash box is kept, and your troubles will soon come to an end.” "My father never keeps money in the house," I said. "And I don't think you'd find more than a shilling or two in the cash-box."

But the tramps did not believe me.

"Let us torture him a little," said one of them. "We can use this rope," said the other.

I again assured them that whatever money might have been in the house earlier in the day had gone in wages or had been taken by my father and mother.

The men did not seem to hear. The feast was beginning to confuse them. However, they got a rope and threw one end of it over a sturdy hook in the great beam that ran across the ceiling. Then they lifted me on to the table and placed me just below the hanging rope -one end of which the first scoundrel

held in his hand.

"Better put it around his neck and finish him," said one of the tramps.

"Not just yet," said the other. "We must first have some fun with him. Suppose we hang him up

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