"Uncle is so very good and kind," said Alie to her brother, as they
walked home from afternoon service, "that I wonder how you can bear to
have that naughty picture still in your book. He is not in the least
like a cannibal, and it seems quite wrong to laugh at him so."
"I'll rub it all out one of these days," replied Johnny; "but I must
show it first to Peter Crane. He says that I never hit on a likeness: if
he sees that, he'll never say so again!"
The next morning Jonas occupied himself with gathering wild flowers and
herbs in the fields. He carried them into his little room, where Johnny
heard him whistling "Old Tom Bowling," like one at peace with himself
and all the world.
Presently Jonas called to the boy to bring him a knife from the kitchen;
a request made in an unusually courteous tone of voice, and with which,
of course, Johnny immediately complied.
He found Jonas busy drying his plants, by laying them neatly between the
pages of a book, preparatory to pressing them down. What was the terror
of Johnny when he perceived that the book whose pages Jonas was turning
over for this purpose was no other than his "Robinson Crusoe"!
"Oh! if I could only get it out of his hands before he comes to that
horrid picture! Oh! what shall I do? what shall I do?" thought the
bewildered Johnny.
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