so!"

"And my brother Hollis is gone."

"This is a funny piece of work if it's true," said Mr. Brooks, with
another genuine laugh; "you'd better ask her a few more questions before
you start out. Who else is gone? Have they shut the house up?"

"Yes, sir; shut it right up tight."

"Nobody in it, at all?"

"No, only the men and women. Prudy's gone, and Dotty Dimple's gone, and
I'm gone."

"Only the men and women, she says. That must be the servants. So the
house must be open, pa. At any rate, I shall take her. Say by-bye, my
pretty, and we'll be starting."

Fly was very glad to go, but Maria clung to her fondly, and Bennie ran
after her almost to Broadway, where Mrs. Brooks took a Fifth Avenue
stage. She knew Colonel Allen's house very well, for she had seen it
more than once, while it was in process of building. That was two or
three years ago, when her husband was well, and the family lived very
comfortably on Thirty-third Street. She sighed as she thought how
different it was now. Mr. Brooks would never be able to work any more;
they hardly had food enough to eat, and poor Maria had lost her
eyesight.

"Here we are, little Katie," said she.

But the child did not wait to be helped out; she danced down the steps,
and would have flown across the street, if Mrs. Brooks had not caught
her.

"I see it--I see it; my auntie's house. But there isn't nobody to it."

The man who met them at the door was so surprised and delighted to see
Fly, that he forgot his manners, and did not ask Mrs. Brooks in.

"Bless us, the baby's found!" cried he, and ran to spread the news.

Aunt Madge was walking the parlor floor, and Horace sitting on the sofa,
as rigid as the marble elf Puck, just over his head. Prudy and Dotty had
joined hands, and were crying softly on the rug. As the police had been
notified of Fly's loss, all the family had to do was to wait. A servant
was at the nearest telegraph office, with a horse and carriage, and at
the first tidings would drive home and report.

The words "The baby's found" rang through the house like a peal of
bells. In an instant Flyaway Runaway was clasped in everybody's arms,
and wet with everybody's tears.

"Thought I'd come back," said the little truant, peeping up at her
agitated friends' with some surprise; "thought I'd come back and get my
skipt!"

Then they exclaimed, in chorus,--

"Topknot _shall_ have her skipt! The blessed baby! The darling old Fly!"

And Dotty wound