Ben decided not to produce the will too soon. It would look suspicious. Besides, the longer it remained missing, the more rejoiced his mother would be to recover it, and so naturally the more ready to pay the reward she had promised. The afternoon of the next day he thought would be quite soon enough to "find" it.

Meanwhile the next morning Ben strolled over to the tavern, thinking he might find Winchester. But that young man had gone out on a fishing excursion, and had left word to that effect with the landlord.

So Ben strolled down to the river. It was a delightful day, and the desire seized him to "go in swimming." Though he cared little for other athletic exercises, he was fond of swimming, and was quite a fair swimmer.

Now, as Ben's ill luck would have it, Sam Selwyn chanced to be in the woods quite near by, and saw Ben undress and go into the water. He was not fond of Ben, and he was fond of a practical joke. Besides, he had been for some time wanting to pay off Ben for the share he had in making John's life uncomfortable. A plan suggested itself to him.

"I'll do it!" he exclaimed, his eyes twinkling with merriment.

He ran home,—it was but a few steps across lots,—dashed upstairs, and from an upper room took a faded calico dress and hoop-skirt, and, rolling them up, made his way swiftly back to the river. The river's edge was heavily wooded, and running vines and thick underbrush almost completely concealed the water from the sight. He went to the place where Ben had deposited his clothes, took away his coat, vest, and pantaloons, put the gown and hoop-skirt in their place, and quickly departed. Ben's clothes he hid away in the hollow trunk of an old tree not more than two rods distant. But in doing so a folded paper slipped out of the coat-pocket. Sam's attention was drawn towards it, for it looked like the legal papers of which his father had so many in his office. Opening it under an impulse of curiosity, his face instantly glowed with an expression of the most earnest and enthusiastic joy.

"By all my lucky stars!" he exclaimed; "if this isn't the lost will! This will set John all right. I wonder how that scamp got hold of it!"

Sam put the will in his own inside coat-pocket, and buttoned up his coat to make sure that it was safe. He wanted to go at once and communicate the joyful discovery to his father, but he also wanted to enjoy Ben's dismay when he found his clothes gone. This he could not forego on any account, and that he might be an unseen witness of all that occurred, he climbed up a large tree whose thick-leaved branches hid him completely.

Hardly had he concealed himself before Ben emerged from the water. He at once proceeded to the spot where he had left his clothing. In ludicrous perplexity he gazed at the remarkable change which had taken place. He lifted the gown and skirt, and found that his shirt, collar, hat, stockings, and shoes were untouched.

He put on his shirt and stockings, and called out, angrily, thinking the author of the trick might be within hearing:—

"I say, bring back my clothes!"

But no reply was made.

"Bring back my clothes, I say!" he called, in louder and more angry accents.

But again this reasonable request fell unheeded. He waited anxiously for a response, but none came.

"Where are you, you scoundrel?" he screamed, in very ill temper.

"Don't you wish you knew?" thought Sam, as he looked calmly down from a distance upon Ben.

"Perhaps the scamp has hid my clothes somewhere about here," thought Ben.

He proceeded to search in every direction he could think of. But the hollow tree, rather strangely, did not occur to him and escaped his notice.

His anger and dismay increased as he found his search vain.

"I wish I had the mean, contemptible rascal here!" he exclaimed. "I'd break every bone in his body!"

"I don't know about that, Ben Brayton," silently commented Sam, from his secure post of observation.

"What shall I do?" thought Ben, gloomily.

He sat down to consider. His situation was certainly an embarrassing one. Of course he could not go home in his shirt, and the only alternative was to wear the odious gown. It was hard to make up his mind to that. He preferred to wait awhile to see if help would not come from some quarter. Sam began to get tired in his perch.

"Why don't the fellow dress and go home?" he muttered.

At length Ben made up his mind that it must be done, and, with a hearty anathema on the author of his perplexity, robed himself in the dress. Sam nearly exploded with laughter as he saw Ben arrayed in the gown, which fell lank around him. Ben gazed ruefully at his extraordinary figure, and then at the hoop-skirt. He concluded that he would not look quite so badly with that addition. He therefore fitted it on as well as he could, and adjusted his dress by the help of some pins which he found sticking in the dress.

"I wish I had a hood or something to hide my face," muttered Ben, dismally. "I might pass for a girl then. Now folks will stare at me as if I was mad, and if any one sees me I shall never hear the last of it."

Certainly Ben's black felt hat did not look much in keeping with the faded calico dress, now properly filled out by the hoop-skirt, which swayed from side to side as he walked.

"Oh, it's too rich!" thought Sam, almost choking with suppressed laughter. "What a sensation he will make in the village!"

Just then Ben's foot got caught somehow, and he fell sprawling. He gathered himself up with furious energy, and did not observe that there was a conspicuous stain of mud on his dress. He took a roundabout way, so as to remain under cover of the woods as long as he could.