oh, I always thought of it as someone absconding with the goods, idk why. now i'll have to google search all literature - but i'm betting it's in Little Men! And one of the little boys absconded with all the tea cakes and got a bellyache. We had 3 books in our house growing up, and that was one of them. I wasn't allowed to read it, it was for boys, just like I wasn't allowed to watch the Rifleman. but i'm making up for it now! it's on every day at 6pm! I'm addicted!