"Lee didn't do it," said Frank.

"What makes you think so?"

"See here," said Frank, bending over a footprint in the soft earth;
"the Hillers all go bare-foot, and these fellows wore boots. I know
who did it, as well as if I had seen them. It was the work of Charles
Morgan and a few of his particular friends. They must have been very
still about it, for Brave didn't hear them."

"I don't see what object they had in doing it," said Julia.

"I know what they did it for," said Frank; "and if I ever catch--But,"
he added, checking himself, "there's no use in grumbling about it; no
amount of fretting will repair the damage."

So saying, he led the way toward the house.

It did not take him long to don his working-suit, and, shouldering his
hoe, he returned to the strawberry-bed, and, in less than an hour, the
plants were all in the ground again.




CHAPTER VIII.

How to Spend the "Fourth."