The yard was frosted over with moonlight, but when he reached the
rude building where the farm implements and cattle fodder were
sheltered he saw that it was quite dark inside, only a few
scattered moonbeams crawling through the narrow doorway. To his
first call there was no answer, and it was only after he had
lighted his lantern and swung it round in the darkness that he
discovered Will lying fast asleep upon a pile of straw.

As the light struck him full in the face the boy opened his eyes
and sprang up.

"Why, it's you," he said in a relieved voice. "I thought it was
grandpa. If he comes you've got to keep him out, you know!"

He spoke in an excited whisper, and his eyes plunged beyond the
entrance with a look of pitiable and abject terror. Once or twice
he shivered as if from cold, and then, turning away, cowered into
the pile of straw in search of warmth.

For a time Christopher stood gazing uneasily down upon him. "Look
here, man, this can't keep up," he said. "You'd better go
straight home, that's my opinion, and get into a decent bed."

Will started up again. "I won't see him! I won't!" he cried
angrily. "If you bring him here I'll get up and hide. I won't see
him! Why, he almost killed me after that 'possum hunt we had, and
if he found this out so soon he'd kill me outright. There was an
awful rumpus at school. They wrote him and he said he was coming,
so I ran away. It was all his fault, too; he had no business to
send me back again when he knew how I hated it. I told him he'd