end of a
brick house. It was all very ordinary and homely-looking, not at all
like the surroundings one naturally expects to find associated with
deeds of wrong and cruelty. But since the children had heard of the
fearful cellar beneath that innocent brick house, they shuddered as
they glanced towards it. And to-day for the first time they saw
someone moving about the garden.

"Lie still," whispered Lewis, "as still as death! She is coming this
way!"

Full of mingled terror and curiosity, Madge, Betty, and John lay
motionless, hardly moving an eyelid. It was Lewis who fidgeted
decidedly the most, in spite of his having been the one to give the
order for silence. And presently through a gate from the garden came
an old lady. She was dressed all in gray--gown, shawl, and bonnet, and
most delicately clean and neat she looked. In her hand she carried a
nosegay of white flowers, and a few paces behind her solemnly stalked a
large black cat.

There were only two remarkable things about this old lady's
appearance--always excepting her extreme air of daintiness. One was
the smallness of her size, the other her funny trick of nodding her
head continually. The latter seemed as much a habit with her as
breathing; she nodded at the buttercups and daisies beneath her feet,
and she nodded at the two sleek cows, who stopped chewing the cud for a
moment to gaze back with blinking, white-lashed eyes. She even nodded
more than once towards the beech-tree, until Madge made sure that they
were discovered, and began to prepare a fine speech, defying Mrs.
Howard to trespass one inch on Captain West's land. But after all
there was no opportunity for delivering this timely warning, as the old
lady glided slowly on through the orchard, and having gently inspected
(and nodded to) every individual apple-tree, she returned to the garden
and disappeared round a corner of the house, closely followed by the
black cat.

"So that's Mrs. Howard!" exclaimed Madge, stretching her cramped limbs
after the effort of remaining still so long. "She doesn't look as if
she could hurt you very much. Why, I don't believe she is as tall as I
am!"

"Perhaps not," replied Lewis. "But I never said she shut me up
herself, did I? She keeps a sort of jailer to do that. And she stands
and grins on the top step while he is hurling me into the cellar below.
You should see her grin!"

"But she looks so gentle," objected Betty.

"I'll tell you the