d the tray down-stairs she slapped it down on the
kitchen dresser so that Mrs. Loomis, the cook, could see the highly
polished dishes and plates.

"Look at that!" she said. "This is a house of mystery, and those two
children are the greatest mysteries in it."

"If they keep that up every day," said the strong young footman John,
"there'd be small wonder that he weighs twice as much to-day as he did
a month ago. I should have to give up my place in time, for fear of
doing my muscles an injury."

That afternoon Mary noticed that something new had happened in Colin's
room. She had noticed it the day before but had said nothing because
she thought the change might have been made by chance. She said
nothing today but she sat and looked fixedly at the picture over the
mantel. She could look at it because the curtain had been drawn aside.
That was the change she noticed.

"I know what you want me to tell you," said Colin, after she had stared
a few minutes. "I always know when you want me to tell you something.
You are wondering why the curtain is drawn back. I am going to keep it
like that."

"Why?" asked Mary.

"Because it doesn't make me angry any more to see her laughing. I
wakened when it was bright moonlight two nights ago and felt as if the
Magic was filling the room and making everything so splendid that I
couldn't lie still. I got up and looked out of the window. The room
was quite light and there was a patch of moonlight on the curtain and
somehow that made me go and pull the cord. She looked right down at me
as if she were laughing because she was glad I was standing there. It
made me like to look at her. I want to see her laughing like that all
the time. I think she must have been a sort of Magic person perhaps."

"You are so like her now," said Mary, "that sometimes I think perhaps
you are her ghost made into a boy."

That idea seemed to impress Colin. He thought it over and then
answered her slowly.

"If I were her ghost--my father would be fond of me."

"Do you want him to be fond of you?" inquired Mary.

"I used to hate it because he was not fond of me. If he grew fond of
me I think I should tell him about the Magic. It might make him more
cheerful."

CHAPTER XXVI

"IT'S MOTHER!"

Their belief in the Magic was an abiding thing. After the morning's
incantations Colin sometimes gave them Magic lectures.

"I like to do it," he explained, "because when I grow up and mak