g her head.

"Yo' sho' is possessed," said Aunt Esmerelda. "Such carrying on I never
heard. I spec's de evil one was after yo', an' I hopes he catches yo'
and takes yo' away wid him."

Jeremiah winked his yellow eyes sleepily in reply, but at the sight of
Hortense he lashed his tail and turned away. Aunt Esmerelda, grumbling,
gave him a saucer of milk.

"Yo' keep away from dat animal," said Aunt Esmerelda to Hortense. "No
one knows de wickedness of his heart."

Hortense waited in the kitchen until Mary was free to begin her
morning's task of dusting and tidying the rooms.

"May I come?" she begged.

"Sure," said Mary kindly. "I'm dusting the big parlor this morning, and
there are lots of interesting things to see there."

In the big unused parlor she threw open the shutters and parted the
curtains to let in the sunlight. Hortense was at once absorbed in the
treasures she found. The room was filled with things which Grandfather
had brought home from his travels all over the world. There were heavy,
dark red tables carved with all kinds of flowers and animals, bright
silk cushions, little ebony tabourets with brass trays upon them,
curious vases and lacquer boxes from China and Japan. On the mantel was
a beautiful tree of pink coral in a glass case, and beside it were
wonderful shells and little elephants carved from ivory. On the walls
were bits of embroidery framed and covered with glass, picturing
bright-plumaged birds and tigers standing in snow.

Most fascinating of all were the strange weapons arrayed in a pattern
upon one wall--spears, guns, bows and arrows, swords and knives,
boomerangs, war clubs, bolos--weapons which Hortense had seen only in
pictures in her geography and in books of travel. They all seemed dead
and harmless enough now, not likely to come down from the wall and
wander about the house at night. Hortense doubted whether they would
even speak.

However, one was different, quite wide-awake and, Hortense could see,
only waiting for a chance to leap down from the wall. It was a long
knife with a green handle made from some sort of stone. Its shape was
most curious, like the path of a snake in the dust. Like a snake, too,
it seemed deadly, and the light that played upon its sinuous length and
dripped from the point like water, glittered like the eyes of a
serpent.

"What an awful knife," said Hortense.

"Those spears and knives give me the shivers," said Mary. "I've told
your Grandfather