"O, that will be fine," replied Edna, "I'm going up stairs to take off
my wraps, and then I'm coming down into the kitchen."

"Moind ye change yer dhress," called Ellen; "an' put on an apron, so
ye'll not get yer clothes hurted."

Edna was down again in a twinkling, the cause of the sudden departure
of her uncle and aunt lost sight of in this "happening" of a cosy
time.

[Illustration: MOGGINS.]

There was something particularly cheery and comfortable about the
clean kitchen. Louis was already there playing with Moggins; the
little kitty was whisking around after a string, his prancings and
sidewise jumps making the children laugh merrily. Edna left this play
to make a little short cake from some dough which Ellen gave her. She
baked it on top of the stove, and, although it was neither very clean
nor well baked, and was rather ragged looking, it was heartily enjoyed
by the children and Moggins, who was a little cat ready to taste
anything offered to him.

Edna poured out the cambric tea and mixed it with great gravity,
giving Louis plenty of sugar in his, while the amount of short cake
and syrup indulged in would have been considered shocking by Aunt
Elizabeth. But the children had never so enjoyed a meal in that house.

Edna's doll, Ada, occupied a place at the table, being mounted upon a
firkin placed upon a chair, and as Edna had to eat both her own and
her doll's share of the short cake it was no wonder that the supply
was more than she could manage.

Louis took Moggins under his care, but Moggins, it must be confessed,
did not behave so well as Ada, for he slyly whipped off with his paw
pieces of food from Louis' fork, and began lapping the cambric tea
from his neighbor's cup, so finally he was sent from the table, a
disgrace which did not affect him in the least, as it gave him a
chance to scamper around after his tail, and race about without
restraint.

"O, Louis," said Edna, when bedtime came, "aren't you afraid to sleep
down here alone?"

Louis flushed up. "What did you say that for?" he replied. "I wasn't
going to think about it, and now you've made me. I'm not exactly
afraid, but it is a long way up to you and Ellen if anything should
happen."

Ellen stood thoughtfully considering the question, one hand on her
hip, and the other stroking her puckered-up lips. "Thrue for ye," she
said. "I promised the mistress to hev an eye on ye, an' how can an eye
pinitrate through the two flures? I'll bring