are useful in some ways. So he was living in clover, when unfortunately the two quarrelled about something. Bobby was fairly cornered, for he had bought two ferrets on tick, and promised to pay a shilling a week, thinking this happy state of things would last for ever. Something had to be done, of course; so when the week was up, and he was being dunned for the shilling, he went off to the Fellow and said, "Your heart-broken Bella implores you to meet her this evening at sundown. By the hollow oak as of old, be it only for a moment. Do not fail!" He got all that out of a book, of course. The Fellow looked puzzled and said, "What hollow oak? I don't know any hollow oak." "Perhaps it was the Royal Oak?" said Bobby promptly, seeing he had made a slip, through trusting too much to the book; but this didn't seem to make the Fellow any happier, for the Royal Oak, you know, is rather a low sort of house, as pubs go. At last the Fellow said, "Well, I think I know where she means: the hollow tree in your father's paddock. It happens to be an elm, but she wouldn't know the difference. All right: say I'll be there." Bobby hung about a bit, for he hadn't got his money. "She was
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THE BURGLARS
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