the35 twins were anything but proud of the episode, they never referred to it. 35 "Sarah will probably do just as she threatened," added Jess, looking meaningly at Corinne, "and lock up the attic. She's awfully particular about that place! You'd think it was as important as the parlor!" Suddenly Margaret, who could endure the suspense no longer, burst out: "If some one doesn't tell me quick all about that mysterious thing you found in the attic, I'll—I'll go crazy!" Then she dropped back in her chair, overcome anew by shyness at having been so vehement before a comparative stranger. "Oh, tell her, right away!" cried Corinne. "I know just how she feels!" "Well, it happened this way," began Jess, between a sip of chocolate and a bite of drop-cake. "Corinne and I were looking at the spinning-wheel—" "Yes, and it's a beauty, too!" interrupted Corinne. "You ought to have it down here." "—and then we got to poking around, looking36–38 into some boxes and talking about the funny old hooded cradle that Mother brought from her home in Massachusetts. And all of a sudden Corinne spied that little old hair-trunk,—do you remember it, Bess?—and she said she'd never seen an old trunk like that before. I asked her if she'd like to look into it. I really didn't remember, myself, what the inside was like or what was kept in it. She said she would, so we started to haul it down. It's rather small, and Sarah had it piled way up on that high shelf. 36–38 "Well, I guess we gave it too hard a jerk, for all of a sudden, down it came—smash!—and flew open (you know it hasn't any lock now), and everything in it was scattered all over the floor. Sarah had all our winter flannels packed away in it, and you can imagine what a time we had picking them up and trying to fold and get them back so she wouldn't know what had happened! "Corinne noticed that the bottom of the trunk seemed all wrong" "But here's the queer part of it! Just after we'd collected all the things and folded them39 nicely and were going to put them back, Corinne noticed that the bottom of the trunk seemed all wrong. One corner of it was humped up as though it had been knocked through in falling. I tell you I was scared, for I thought Sarah'd
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