HARPER'S
NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.
No. XXIV.—MAY, 1852.—Vol. IV.
RODOLPHUS.—A FRANCONIA STORY.
BY JACOB ABBOTT.
CHAPTER III.
I. ANTONIO.
The person who came in so suddenly to help the boys extinguish the fire under the corn-barn, on the night of the robbery, was Antonio, or Beechnut, as the boys more commonly called him. In order to explain how he came to be there, we must go back a little in our narrative, and change the scene of it to Mrs. Henry's house at Franconia, where Antonio lived.
One morning about a week before the robbery, Phonny, Mrs. Henry's son, and his cousin Malleville, who was at that time making a visit at his mother's, were out upon the back platform at play, when they saw Antonio walking toward the barn.
"Children," said Antonio, "we are going into the field to get a great stone out of the ground. You may go with us if you like."