brass through sultry fogs. My mother, in a white
dress, lay back in her rocking-chair and fanned herself languidly. My
father smoked his Powhatan pipe upon the steps, leaning against one
pillar of the roof. Mary 'Liza in pale-blue lawn, occupied the other end
of the step. Her hands were in her lap. Cinderella dozed upon a fold of
her skirt. Dorinda had been undressed and rocked to sleep at sunset.
Preciosa had gone upstairs at the same time. I saw her lying upon the
foot of our bed after supper, her eyes narrowed to slender slits with
sleep or slyness. I had a shrewd impression that if I were to go
upstairs now I should not find her in the same place. Instead of
verifying the surmise in this way I stole noiselessly out of the family
group, sauntering along carelessly until I turned the corner of the
house, after which I ran like a lapwing to the garden gate, the
rendezvous agreed upon between Uncle Ike and myself.

He was there with the various "properties" I had ordered.

_Imprimis_, a big dish-pan; _second_, a monstrous black pot from which
steam arose into the hot night; _third_, a stout twine, to one end of
which was attached a brick; a lump of raw liver dangled at the other. By
my directions the pan was balanced upon the shelf where the cottage had
stood, so that a slight pull would overset it, the brick was laid in the
bottom, the string with the liver attachment hanging over the side.
Lastly, Uncle Ike mounted upon the stool I was wont to use when I
visited my murdered dears, and filled the pan from the pot. All being
ready, we conspirators withdrew to the unlighted dining room, and
stationed ourselves at a window.

Our watch was not tedious. I was the first to discern a moving speck in
the dim vista of the walk leading from the gate far down the garden. It
enlarged and assumed a definite form, slowly. Evidently it was a scout,
and the advance a reconnoissance. Feline artifice was in every line and
motion. A ray of misty moonlight lay athwart the entrance to the garden.
The gate was propped open. As the cat crossed it, we recognized a wily
and wicked old Tom from the stable, a disreputable plebeian prowler,
never tolerated in the house grounds. I hardly smothered an ejaculation
as dainty Preciosa glided into the illuminated area and took part in the
furtive inspection of the preparations made for the reception of last
night's marauders. A third, and yet a fourth, miscreant joined the
first two, and heads were