So Mrs. Hawkins ran around from room to room.
But she did not find Leo, for the simple reason that the young gymnast had, by running through two rooms, reached the stairs and gone down to the front door.
He opened this and ran outside just as Daniel Hawkins appeared around the corner of the porch, whip in hand.
“Stop, Leo!”
“Not to-day!” retorted the boy.
And away he went, Daniel Hawkins lumbering after him.
The farmer was no match for the young gymnast. Soon Leo was out of his sight, and he returned to the farmhouse to talk the matter over with his spouse.
“I’ll fix him yet, see ef I don’t!” he said to Martha.
Soon his bony nag was hitched up to a buckboard, and away went the farmer in pursuit of the lad, who was doing his best to get away.
“I’ll teach him a lesson he won’t forget in a hurry when I collar him,” thought the miserly man savagely.