stocking-basket, as if
nothing had happened.

"I will tell you to-morrow what I think of dreams, Moses.--Hush, Patty,
I am afraid we shall be sorry you found your dollar, if it makes you so
noisy."

Mr. Starbird went up to the table where Mrs. Lyman sat, pretending to be
looking for the shears, but really to get a peep at the lady's eyes. At
any rate, he did not go away till he had made her look at him, and then
they both smiled, and Mrs. Lyman said, in a very low voice,--

"Francis, you have kept up the joke long enough."

Frank nodded and went back to the settle.

"James," said he, "you are the wise one of the family; I wish you would
tell me how you account for my dream."

"Can't account for it," said James, shaking his head; "don't pretend
to."

"Well, then, if you can't," returned Mr. Starbird, looking very
innocent, "perhaps you can tell me what day of the month it is?"

There was a general uproar then.

"Have you been making fools of us, Frank Starbird?" cried James and
Rachel, seizing him, one by the hair, the other by the ears.

"April Fools! April Fools!" exclaimed all the children together,--all
except Dorcas.

"It's the best fool I ever heard of," said William Parlin; "but how did
you do it, sir?"

"Yes, explain yourself," said James and Rachel. "Was mother in the
secret?"

"No; but Dorcas was. Let go my hair, James, and I'll speak.--Fact is, I
happened to find that rag baby out there on the scaffold this afternoon
with that pocket on its neck, and so I dreamed a dream to suit myself."

"Yes," said Dorcas; "and I told him just how Israel Crossman looked, and
all about Siller Noonin, and didn't he say it off like a book?"

"Wasn't it a dream, then?" asked little Patty.

"No, dear; it was only nonsense."

"Well, then, I didn't put my dolly out there,--did I?"

"Yes, of course you did," said her mother; "only you have forgotten it."

But Patty looked puzzled. She could not recollect that ever so long ago,
the day the beggar girl came to the house, she had cured Polly Dolly
Adaline's sore throat with her mother's quilted pocket, and then had
carried the sick dolly out to the barn, "so she could get well faster
where there wasn't any noise."

No, Patty could not recollect this, and the whole thing was a mystery to
her.

"Children," said Mrs. Lyman, looking up from her stockings, as soon as
there was a chance to speak, "I have one word to say on this subject:
whenever you hear of signs