oh Spring, dear, gentle Spring,
My poet's garland do I bring
To lay upon thy shining hair
Where rests a wreath of flowers so fair.
There is a music in the brook
Which answers to thy tender look
And in thy eyes there is a spell
Of soft enchantment too sweet to tell.
My heart to thine shall ever turn
For thou hast made my soul to burn
With rapture far beyond----

Elaine screamed, and in a twinkling was on her chair with her skirts
gathered about her. It was only Claudius Tiberius, dressed in Rebecca's
doll's clothes, scooting madly toward the front door, but it served
effectually to break up the entertainment.

XIII

A Sensitive Soul

Uncle Israel was securely locked in for the night, and was correspondingly
restless. He felt like a caged animal, and sleep, though earnestly wooed,
failed to come to his relief. A powerful draught of his usual sleeping
potion had been like so much water, as far as effect was concerned.

At length he got up, his lifelong habit of cautious movement asserting
itself even here, and with tremulous, withered hands, lighted his candle.
Then he put on his piebald dressing-gown and his carpet slippers, and sat
on the declivity of his bed, blinking at the light, as wide awake as any
owl.

Presently it came to him that he had not as yet made a thorough search of
his own apartment, so he began at the foundation, so to speak, and crawled
painfully over the carpet, paying special attention to the edges. Next, he
fingered the baseboards carefully, rapping here and there, as though he
expected some significant sound to penetrate his deafness. Rising, he went
over the wall systematically, and at length, with the aid of a chair,
reached up to the picture-moulding. He had gone nearly around the room,
without any definite idea of what he was searching for, when his
questioning fingers touched a small, metallic object.

A smile of childlike pleasure transfigured Uncle Israel's wizened old
face. Trembling, he slipped down from the chair, falling over the bath
cabinet in his descent, and tried the key in the lock. It fitted, and the
old man fairly chuckled.

"Wait till I tell Belinda," he muttered, delightedly. Then a crafty second
thought suggested that it might be wiser to keep "Belinda" in the dark,
lest she might in some way gain po