out, please."

No response.

"M-a-r-y! I'm locked in; come let me out!"

"What in the whorld is the matter wid ye?" came from the foot of the
stairs.

"I'm locked _in_ and can't get out; come and open the door!"

"Och, worra! Don't be callin' to me not to _open_ the door; didn't Oi tell
ye Oi wouldn't come near ye, and Oi _won't_. It's goin' down to the bharn
Oi am, and ye needn't be for worritin', at all, at all," and receding
footsteps proved Mary's words only too true.

"Now, I'm in a pretty fix, am I not? Like enough she won't come back for
twenty minutes, and here I've got to stay. Plague take the old bolt!"

What imp of mischief made Mary return to the laundry by the cellar-door,
take up her basket of freshly laundered clothes, and, after carrying them
up to Mrs. Rockwood's bedroom, go on to her own in the third story to
dress for the afternoon, must forever remain a mystery. But this she did,
and, as Jean heard her go up the back stairs, beneath which she was
securely fastened in the pot-closet, she thumped and pounded with renewed
energy. But the only response was:

"No, no; not for the whorld, darlint, would Oi disthurbe ye and spoil yer
purty picter."

About an hour later Mrs. Rockwood, returning from her call, met Helen upon
the front piazza.

"Has Jean got everything ready to take the pictures?" she asked, eagerly.
"It is such a perfect day for it, and I am so anxious that I can hardly
wait. It seems too good to be true that we have really got cameras at
last, doesn't it?"

"It seems as though the fairies must have been aware of your great desire
to have them, and so took matters into their own hands," replied Mrs.
Rockwood, as she unfastened the front door with her latch-key and held it
open for Helen to enter.

As they entered the hall they were greeted with a series of muffled thumps
and bangs.

"I _do_ wish Mary would remember what I have so often told her about
breaking her kindling upon the cellar floor," she exclaimed.

Rattle, rattle! Bang, bang! and then a crash as though the roof were
falling.

"What under the sun can be the matter!" exclaimed Mrs. Rockwood.

Just then Mary appeared at the head of the stairs.

"Why, Mary, what is all this noise?"

"Shure, it was comin' down mesilf Oi was to see. Saints presarve us, can
there be thieves in the house, Oi do' know!"

"Rather noisy thieves, I should think. Where is Miss Jean?"

"Out in the fields beyant, wid her bit av a came