y, but
locking it as well.

"Them painter chaps," said Mrs. Jones, as she put the key in her great
dimity pocket, "isn't to be trusted no ways. They're as likely to shy
all them old playthings out o' winder as not, and then the poor children
would miss 'em when they come home."

And so the room was once more left to stillness and darkness for the
night. The little mice came out and ran riot about the bare floor, and
tried to get into the cupboard, but they could not manage it; and the
crickets chirped loudly in the distant kitchen, for they were so used to
Mrs. Jones, they did not mind her a bit. But the poor toys were really
shut up again, and their holiday ended much quicker than they had
expected. They heard the distant sounds of the workmen all over the
house, and even heard them come into the nursery itself, but they saw
nothing more. They could even hear the regular dabs and sweeps of the
painter's brush, especially when he was at work on the door that shut
them up so closely, and then afterwards they heard the paper hangers
ripping off the old papers with a rushing noise, and scraping and sizing
the walls for the new paper, but they never got out.

Then the next sounds that greeted them, after a long interval, were the
voices of Mr. Spenser and old Mrs. Jones. He had come to see how the
house looked after the workmen had left, and she was showing him all
over it.

"The nursery looks very nice, sir," she said, as she opened the door,
"the old dirty paper all gone, and new paint, you can hardly know it
again. This here new paper, to my mind, with the trails of roses and
jessamy, is the prettiest in the house!"

"It looks very clean and bright certainly," replied Mr. Spenser, "but
why don't you open this door too? You can't have too much air!"

"This is only a cupboard, sir," answered Mrs. Jones. "There were a lot
of old playthings left here, and I thought them painters might fling 'em
about, so I just turned the key, sir, but I'm going to clean it right
down to-morrow. I thought, sir, that may be, the young ladies and
gentlemen might be put out if they found all their little things losed.
But here's the key, sir, in my pocket, and now they're all off the
premises, there's no need to keep it locked up."

"Quite right, Mrs. Jones," said Mr. Spenser, "I'm very glad you had so
much thought. I don't know how Nurse came to overlook this cupboard."

"Why, there, she had such a deal to do with packing up all the t