"'William,' said the preacher to me, 'do you remember how I gave you the key to the cupboard when you fixed the wall?'
"'Why, yes,' I said. 'Of course!'
"'William,' said he to me, 'did you open the cupboard?'
"'Why, no,' I said. 'I didn't have to, Para [Pastor].'
"'Were you away from the church?'
"'No,' I said. 'I took my dinner. She can tell you that.'
"'Why, William,' said he to me, 'the communion set is gone! The communion set is gone,' he said, 'gone!'
"I went with him to the church, Alvin, and I looked into the cupboard. Everything was gone, Alvin, bag and all. Then I came home and after a while they came. They wanted to talk, they wanted me to tell them everything that had happened all day. But I couldn't tell them anything. I had built the wall and a little one had talked to me, that was all. There she sat and here I sat and it was dark. Then, Alvin, it came to me! When I got halfway up the window, it was too high to go farther, and I went out of the church to get boards and build a platform across chairs so that I could reach. I was gone some little time, and when I came back Hartman was going down the pike. It was Hartman that took the communion set."
Alvin moved toward the side of his chair, and away from his father.
"Then I got up and went down the hill, and into Hartman's house I walked. He was sitting by the table with his best clothes on to go to church and she was there, too. They were always rich; they had everything grand. I made tracks on her clean floor, and she looked sharp at me, but I did not care. I spoke right up to him.