ly exclaimed, "I believe I've got it; look here!" He showed the
girls that the construction of the lid at two of the corners was
slightly different from the other two. "It's something to do with these
corners, I'll be bound," he cried excitedly. "Here it comes!"

The girls looked on with intense interest. The big brass nails at the
two corners came out, it seemed, and one side of the lid came right off.
The row of nails all round the rest of it were long enough to go
through the depth of it, and they fitted into corresponding holes in the
box itself, so that once the one side was undone the whole thing simply
lifted off. It was a most ingenious contrivance, and calculated to
baffle even the most clever and curious person.

The girls danced with excitement when they saw that, far from being
empty, the trunk had all sorts of things in it. They had been very
neatly and carefully packed amongst layers of paper. First came some
dresses, amongst them a lilac-flowered muslin, which Marjory recognized
as the very one which her great-grandmother Hunter wore in the big
picture which hung in the drawing-room. It had probably been kept for
that reason. The dress did not seem to have suffered very much from its
long imprisonment. The ground of it had turned yellow, but the lilac
flowers were as fresh as ever. It was made entirely by hand, and it had
a very short-waisted bodice and a frilled skirt. Rolled up with it was a
pair of silk stockings and some dainty satin shoes, all yellow with age.

With a feeling of awe the girls unfolded these treasures of a bygone
day, as if they feared lest the owners of them might rise up and forbid
them to go on.

"Fancy uncle never knowing that all these lovely things were here!"
cried Marjory. "Oh, what's this?" as she lifted out a bundle wrapped in
linen.

"I believe it's somebody's wedding-dress," said Blanche, as she helped
to undo the wrappings.

It was a wedding dress, and there was a veil with it, and a wreath of
myrtle. Fastened to the wreath with white ribbon was a lace-edged paper,
with the following words written on it in a fine Italian hand, "Alison
Grant married John Hunter, October 15, 1843."

"That's my grandmother," said Marjory. "Uncle George says she was very
beautiful and very good. I expect she must have put all these things
here. It seems funny, though, that she put her wedding dress away when
it was quite fresh; it doesn't look as if it had been worn."

"Perhaps she m