“Well,” said Jabez, as the tumblers and the mysterious lead figures were whisked away, “’tis just as well nobody couldn’t attempt to tell what mine was, for I wouldn’t ’ave ’urt anybody’s ingenooity with trying to.  If ’twasn’t a blacksmith’s shop, ’twas a vegetable stall; and if ’twasn’t that, ’twasn’t nothing; and things when they’m like that is best left alone, it’s my belief.”

“P’r’aps it was the table with supper laid on it,” suggested Kitty.

“P’r’aps ’twas, Miss Kitty; but I’m sorry for us all if ’twas, for the dishes, if dishes they was, was empty, and that wouldn’t suit us at the present minute.”

But it exactly depicted the state of the dishes half an hour later, for, as Fanny said when they wanted the kitchen cleared for games, “there wasn’t nothing to clear but empty things.”

By that time all stiffness had worn away, every one was in the highest spirits, and the games went on furiously, so furiously that the striking of the hall clock and the town clock were overlooked, and the first thing that recalled them to themselves was a loud ringing of the front-door bell.

For one second they stood looking at each other in utter dismay, then—­” The back stairs,” whispered Dan.  “Fly, children, scoot, and hop into bed as you are.—­Jabez—­”

But Jabez had already vanished through the back door and had shut himself in Prue’s stable.  Up the back stairs the children scuttled, shoes in hand, and melted away into their various rooms without a sound.  Kitty stayed a moment with Tony to help him into bed, and as she crept out of his room the sound of voices in the hall reached her.

“Grace needn’t have hurried so to let them in,” she thought.  “She could at least have pretended she was asleep and didn’t hear the knock, and so have given us a few minutes more.”  But Grace’s promptness was such that Kitty had barely time to draw her nightgown on over her frock and creep into her bed before she heard her aunt’s footsteps on the stairs.

Mrs. Pike went first to Tony’s room, and Kitty, leaning up, listened in a perfect tremor of nervousness for what might follow.  Tony was no good at pretending, but, as good luck would have it, there was no need of make-believe on his part, for he had been so tired he had fallen fast asleep as soon as he had cuddled down under the bedclothes, and Mrs. Pike, after just a glance, came away quite satisfied.  Then Kitty heard her approaching their room.

“Oh!” she thought with dismay, “she is bringing Anna with her;” for Mrs. Pike was talking to some one in a low voice.  “What bad luck; Anna sees through everything.  I wonder if Betty hears too.  If she doesn’t she is sure to jump.  Betty!  Betty!” she called, as loud as she dared, but the next moment the door opened and Aunt Pike entered with a candle in her hand, and followed by Anna.

“Dear, dear,” she said, as she tripped over something, “how untidy!  What is it, Anna?”