the Mad Hatter’s breakfast; only instead of every one’s moving on one place, the place moves on by itself!”

[27]

They found that Mary had hit her knee by accident against a spring concealed under the table.

“Aunt Nan lived here all alone,” said Mrs. Corliss, “and I dare say she found this an easy way to pass things to herself when she was eating her lonely meals.”

“Let’s keep it like this,” said Mary. “Now I shan’t be needing always to ask John to pass the salt.”

“I don’t think it’s fair!” protested John. “Now, Mary has the seat by the button, and she can make the table turn when she likes. I wish I had a button, too.”

“You’d keep the table whirling all the time, John,” laughed his father. “No, it is better as it is. We chose our seats this way, before we knew about the lively center-piece. Let’s stick to what chance gave us. Aunt Nan’s house seems to be a kind of good-luck game, doesn’t it?”

But in spite of the queer things that were continually happening there, it did not take long for the Corliss family to feel quite at home in this[28] old house, and in Crowfield. Mary was admitted to the High School, and found herself in the same class with Katy Summers, which pleased them both very much. They soon became the closest chums. John went to the Grammar School, where he found some nice boys of his own age who lived just down the road; Ralph and James Perry, cousins in opposite houses, and Billy Barton a little farther on.

[28]

These promptly formed the Big Four; and the neighborhood of the Big Four was the liveliest in town. The Corliss house, with its collections and curiosities, became their favorite meeting-place, and in these days could hardly recognize itself with the merry streams of children who were always running in and out, up and down the stairs. It was fortunate that Dr. Corliss, who kept himself shut up in his study with the book he was writing, was not of a nervous or easily distracted temperament.

As for Mrs. Corliss—being a mother, she just smiled and loved everybody. It was her idea that first of all a home should be a happy place for the family and for every one who came there. The first thing she did was to send for the familiar furniture of the city house which they had left when Dr. Corliss was obliged to[29] give up his professorship in college and move into the 

 Prev. P 16/57 next