Tom see him do it, and remembered about the spoon, and says: "Well, it ain't no use to send things by HIM no more, he ain't reliable." Then he says: "But he done us a good turn with the spoon, anyway, without knowing it, and so we'll go and do him one without HIM knowing it--stop up his rat-holes." There was a noble good lot of them down cellar, and it took us a whole hour, but we done the job tight and good and shipshape.

Then we heard steps on the stairs, and blowed out our light and hid; and here comes the old man, with a candle in one hand and a bundle of stuff in t'other, looking as absent-minded as year before last.

He went a mooning around, first to one rat-hole and then another, till he'd been to them all.

Then he stood about five minutes, picking tallow-drip off of his candle and thinking.

Then he turns off slow and dreamy towards the stairs, saying: "Well, for the life of me I can't remember when I done it.