Page:Keeping the Peace.pdf/34

 So that there should be more time for play, Mr. Eaton would energetically help those who had lessons to do, would get his own sermon finished, and then be ready to go on expeditions with his boys to the shores of Pelham Bay or into the heart of Pelham Wood.

But one day that was damp under foot, Edward had a cold and had been forbidden to go out of the house and was left to his own devices. He was a good little boy and trustworthy. Mischief was comparatively unknown in the Eaton family. Nobody anticipated that he would set the house on fire, or do anything that he shouldn't do. And he didn't. Nevertheless, he got into a great trouble, which was to affect his character and his future life.

While he sat curled in a great chair before the library fire with an illustrated history of the world in his lap, he happened to look up and notice that one of the Dresden china urns which graced the mantelpiece had been cracked.

A curious sense of unrest and foreboding filled him. Presently he climbed down out of his chair and went into the servants' part of the house and asked the cook and the parlormaid if either of them had broken the Dresden china urn. They said that they had not, but that if by any chance he,