d from the mysterious chamber of doom made that dungeon
still more awful. There were very few sentences to the chamber
afterward, and gradually its name disappeared from our talk and from our
fear. Now and then some boy asked, "What has become of the Preay
Chamber?" But nobody answered. If an older boy asked Mr. or Mrs. Gray,
they only smiled, and said nothing. The terror gradually died away, and
the chamber of horrors became a mere legend. Long afterward it was known
that it was all a kindly but deceitful understanding between Mr. and
Mrs. Gray. If a young boy did wrong, and it was thought that reproof and
the mere dread of punishment would be penalty severe enough, it was
agreed that Mr. Gray would send the offender to Mrs. Gray to be immured
in the Preay Chamber. That message was a hint to her to beg--or, in the
French language, _prier_--that for this once the culprit, upon his
promise to do better, should be pardoned.

There is no doubt that the fear of the chamber exercised some restraint
upon mischievous boys. But it was a kind of deceit which is in itself
mischievous. The very name still haunts my imagination, although I am a
bald-headed old boy, for what the most secret chamber of the Inquisition
was to the timid heretic, the Preay Chamber was to the little boy I used
to be.

[Illustration: CHESTNUTTING.--DRAWN BY W. P. SNYDER.]

[Illustration]

THE STORY OF A PARROT.

The children were thinking of something very important. Anybody could
see that. Papa and mamma wondered why they were so serious and silent at
the breakfast table, and mamma was astonished when Carrie, and even
little Hope, begged to walk part of the way to school with Louis,
because they had never thought of doing such a thing before. Louis was a
bright-faced, rosy-cheeked boy of ten years, Carrie was eight, and
little Hope was only six. Mamma was always very kind to her little
folks, and as the morning was sunny, she said they might go if they
would put on their heavy shoes and their cloaks and hoods, for there was
a white crisp frost all over the grass. Mamma watched them with pride as
they scampered down the garden path leading from the front piazza to the
street, but had she heard their conversation she might have staid at
home from the party she was going to that evening, and put a veto on
their grand plan.

"Now, Louis," said Carrie, as soon as they were away from the house,
"you know you promised to sit up with Hope an