So out he went, and down cellar went I. The hunk of butter, big as a person's fist, was where I had left it, so I took up the slab of corn-pone with it on, and blowed out my light, and started up stairs very stealthy, and got up to the main floor all right, but here comes Aunt Sally with a candle, and I clapped the truck in my hat, and clapped my hat on my head, and the next second she see me; and she says:

     "You been down cellar?"

     "Yes'm."

     "What you been doing down there?"

     "Noth'n."

     "NOTH'N!"

     "No'm."

     "Well, then, what possessed you to go down there this time of night?"

     "I don't know 'm."

     "You don't KNOW? Don't answer me that way. Tom, I want to know what you been DOING down there."

     "I hain't been doing a single thing, Aunt Sally, I hope to gracious if I have."