omewhat
surprised young lady.

Then Lawrence told her how some time before Aunt Patsy had given him a
pair of blue shoes, which she said would act as a preventive charm, in
case Mrs Keswick should ever wish to do him harm, and that she had now
called him back to remind him not to neglect this means of personal
protection. "I can't imagine," said Lawrence, "that your aunt would
ever think of such a thing as doing me a harm, or how those little
shoes would prevent her, if she wanted to, but I suppose Aunt Patsy is
crack-brained on some subjects, and so I thought it best to humor her,
and took the shoes."

"Do you know," said Miss Annie, after walking a little distance in
silence, "that I am afraid Aunt Patsy has done a dreadful thing, and
one I never should have suspected her of. Aunt Keswick had a little
baby once, and it died very young. She keeps its clothes in a box, and
I remember when I was a little girl that she once showed them to me,
and told me I was to take the place of that little girl, and that
frightened me dreadfully, because I thought that I would have to die,
and have my clothes put in a box. I recollect perfectly that there was
a pair of little blue shoes among these clothes, and Aunt Patsy must
have stolen them."

"That surprises me," said Lawrence. "I supposed, from what I had heard
of the old woman, that she was perfectly honest."

"So she is," said Annie. "She has been a trusted servant in our family
nearly all her life. But some negroes have very queer ideas about
taking certain things, and I suppose Aunt Patsy had some particular
reason for taking those shoes, for, of course, they could be of no
value to her."

"I am very sorry," said Lawrence, "that such sacred relics should have
come into my possession, but I must admit that I would not like to
give them back to your aunt."

"Oh, no," said Annie, "that would never do; and I wouldn't dare to try
to find her box, and put them in it. It would seem like a desecration
for any hand but her own to touch those things."

"That is true," said Lawrence, "and you might get yourself into a lot
of trouble by endeavoring to repair the mischief. Before I leave here,
we may think of some plan of disposing of the little trotters. It
might be well to give them back to Aunt Patsy and tell her to restore
them."

"I don't know," said Miss Annie, with a slowness of reply, and an
irrelevance of demeanor, which indicated she was not thinking of the
words she