e sofa.

"Well, I'd recognize it if I saw it," said John, "but, come to think of
it, I don't know as I could tell anybody exactly how it looks. It's
something done up in a roll and tied with red tape."

"Done up in a roll and tied with red tape," repeated Dan, meditatively,
opening closet doors and peering into corners, while he tried to keep in
his mind an image of the lost chart as described by his fellow searcher.
"Is this it?"

"Well, now that's something like it," said John. "I'll ask Mary. Here,
Mary, is this it?"

Mary leaned over the railing with hopeful expectancy in her glance.

"Why, John, that's my gossamer case with the gossamer in it. I thought
you knew my chart better than that. Tell the children to look, too.
They'd know it if they saw it."

"I'm lookin' as hard as I can," piped Lucy Ellen from the closet under
the stairs, while little John seized a long stick, ran to the henhouse,
poked the setting hens off their eggs, and searched diligently in every
nest for Mother's lost chart.

"Don't stand on ceremony, Dan. Open every door you come to," commanded
John, as he rummaged in the sideboard and tumbled the piles of snowy
damask. Thus encouraged, Dan walked into the pantry and gazed helplessly
at the jars of preserves and jelly on the top shelf. He lifted the top
from Mary's buttermilk jar. No chart there.

"Done up in a roll and tied with red tape," he muttered, opening a tin
box and disclosing a loaf of bread and a plate of tea-cakes.

"Here, John," he exclaimed, "this prowlin' around in other people's
houses don't suit me at all. Makes me feel like a thief and a robber.
I'll go out and see to my horses, and you keep on lookin'."

And John continued to look, as the shepherd looked for the lost sheep,
as the woman looked for the piece of silver. Now and then he uttered an
ejaculation of wonder and regret, and raised his voice to inquire of
Mary if the lost had been found.

Mary's search up-stairs was greatly hindered by Sally's digressions.
Some minds move in straight lines, others in curves, but Sally's mental
processes were all in the nature of tangents.

"You look in the closet, Sally," said Mary, "and I'll go through the
bureau drawers."

But the novelty of being up-stairs in Mary's house made Sally forget the
cause of her being there.

"Gracious! Mary, how do you keep your room so nice? This is what I call
a young girl's room. I used to be able to have things clean and pretty
before