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250 receipts;—how at length the magnitude of the proffered reward, joined to the threats of the sire, had made him become seriously anxious to learn the real fate and present "whereabout" of Paul;—how, the last time he had seen the father, he had, by way of propitiation and first fruit, taken to him all the papers left by the unhappy mother and secreted by himself; and how he was now delighted to find that Ned was acquainted with Paul's address. Since he despaired of finding Paul by his own exertions alone, he became less tenacious of his secret, and he now proffered Ned, on discovery of Paul, a third of that reward the whole of which he had once hoped to engross.

Ned's eyes and mouth opened at this proposition. "But the name,—the name of the father? you have not told me that yet!" cried he impatiently.

"Noa, noa!" said Dummie archly, "I doesn't tell you all, till you tells I summut. Vhere's little Paul, I say; and vhere be us to get at him?"

Ned heaved a sigh.

"As for the oath," said he musingly, "it would