Oh , what shall we do ? Who can have taken them ? '' It may be stated right here and now that the Falsoms never really knew anything more about the disappearance of their Christmas dinner than they did at that moment . But the only reasonable explanation of the mystery was that a tramp had entered the kitchen and made off with the good things . The Falsom house was right at the end of the street . The narrow backyard opened on a lonely road . Across the road was a stretch of pine woods . There was no house very near except the Tracy one . Stephen reached this conclusion with a bound . He ran out to the yard gate followed by the distracted Alexina . The only person visible was a man some distance down the road . Stephen leaped over the gate and tore down the road in pursuit of him . Alexina went back to the doorstep , sat down upon it , and began to cry . She could n't help it . Her hopes were all in ruins around her . There was no dinner for Uncle James . Josephine Tracy saw her crying . Now , Josie honestly thought that she had a grievance against Alexina . But an Alexina walking unconcernedly by with a cool little nod and her head held high was a very different person from an Alexina sitting on a back doorstep , on Christmas morning , crying . For a moment Josie hesitated .
Then she slowly went out and across the yard XXXXX the fence .
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