[25]

CHAPTER IV THE BOOKS

THE town of Crowfield was built on a swift-flowing river with a waterfall, which gave it strong water-power. So the houses were easily fitted with electricity. Even the old Corliss mansion was up to date in that respect, at least. This was why Aunt Nan had been able to carry out her liking for queer devices and unexpected mechanical effects, as Mr. Griggs, the carpenter, explained when he came to make more hospitable the front hall. He chuckled over the moving chair, the secret of which was a spring concealed under one of the brass nail-heads. Any one who sat down and leaned back was sure to press this button, whereupon the chair would begin to move.

“It beats all how clever that old lady was!” said Mr. Griggs. “I never saw anything like this before. She must ’a’ got some electrician down from the city to fix this up for her. We don’t do that kind of job in Crowfield.”

“Do you suppose there are any more such things about the house?” inquired Mrs. Corliss anxiously.

[26]“I’ll take a look,” said Mr. Griggs. “But I mightn’t find ’em, even so.”

[26]

And he did not find them; Aunt Nan had her secrets carefully concealed. But for weeks the family were continually discovering strange new surprises in their housekeeping.

That very night at supper, just after Mr. Griggs had left the house with his kit of tools, a queer thing happened. They were sitting about the round dining-table, the center of which, as they had noticed from the first, seemed to be a separate inlaid circle of wood. In the middle of this Mary had set a pretty vase of flowers—nasturtiums, mignonette, marigolds, and yellow poppies, the last lingerers in their garden.

They were talking about their first day in Crowfield, about the visit of Katy Summers, and the funny things that had happened to their first caller; and they were all laughing merrily over Mary’s description of how Katy had looked when she went riding out toward the door in the inhospitable chair. Dr. Corliss had just reached out his hand for the sugar. Suddenly the table center began slowly to revolve, and the sugar bowl retreated from his hand as if by magic.

“Well, I never!” said the Doctor. “This is a new kind of butler’s assistant!”

[27]“It makes me feel like Alice in Wonderland!” exclaimed Mary. “It is 

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