on
that, with some trouble, we might make it a very tidy house, and that we
would proceed systematically to clean it, and make it fit for the use of
such august people as we were; and, being governed by the soul of
honour, every article looking like private property was carefully put
away, in case the real owners should arrive, though there was many a
thing that would have been rather useful to us. Some books in the
Spanish language we kept, as the girls and I thought to amuse ourselves
during the next rainy season in teaching ourselves Spanish. "Mighty
silly," says Schillie, "taking such unnecessary trouble, as who knows
but that there may be nobody to talk to ere long even in English." This
old house was very low, and full of rents and holes; also, we discovered
that, though on a plain, it was so contrived nobody could perceive it
was a habitation unless close to it. From two sides it was quite hidden
by trees, though not close to them, from the third side it looked like
part of the plantation, and from the fourth side it seemed to be part
and parcel of a mound and clump of rocks close by. It had five rooms in
it, two not much bigger than closets. Altogether we agreed our new abode
had not the open, frank, handsome air of our own home, with its
wide-spread doorless entrance, but looked rather like the covered den of
people wishing to keep themselves concealed and out of sight. However,
we used it in all openness and fairness, and whatever might have been
the character of its last inhabitants, we kept open house, never closing
the great iron-plated door or the barred shutters; also, we misdoubted
they could have been good people, as there was nothing feminine to be
found about the place. Nevertheless, we lived in great comfort, and
every evening somebody told a new romance as to what had been the fate
of the lost and gone, until we wove a history about them, equal to any
fairy story ever told, winding up with one from Felix, who, after giving
various touching descriptions as to their numerous qualities and
perfections, declared that they died one by one. "How?" said the little
girls, looking aghast at such an abrupt conclusion. "They disappeared,"
said Felix, "one every night." "But that's no story, how did they
disappear?" "Oh, you must guess, my story is a riddle." So they guessed
and guessed, but, becoming no wiser, they clamourously called on him to
tell. "But if you don't guess," said Felix, "how can I tell, for not