some on the table to-night."

By this time Mrs. Stone began to realize that the girl was not accountable
for her actions, for never was there a better bit of acting for an
amateur. Yet she dared not wake her, for stories of the serious harm which
had befallen somnambulists, when wakened suddenly in unfamiliar
surroundings, flashed through her brain, and she was nearly beside herself
with anxiety.

"What shall I do? what _shall_ I do?" she said aloud in great distress;
and, as though in answer to her question, Toinette answered:

"Go, tell Mrs. Stone that she isn't up to snuff as much as she thinks she
is."

This was too much, and, laying her hand gently on Toinette's arm, she
said, softly:

"My dear child, hadn't you better come back upstairs with me?"

Without changing her expression, Toinette replied:

"How oats, peas, beans and barley grow, nor you, nor I, nor Mrs. Stone
knows," and began to dance around in a circle with her ham tightly clasped
in one arm, and the crackers scattering from one end of the pantry to the
other.

Now thoroughly alarmed, and almost in tears, Mrs. Stone said:

"Oh, my dear, dear little girl, won't you come back to your room with me?"
and, grasping hold of Toinette's arm, endeavored to lead her from the
pantry.

[Illustration: "GO, TELL MRS. STONE SHE ISN'T UP TO SNUFF."]

But my lady was having altogether too good a time to end her frolic so
soon, while the audience upon the stairs were nearly dying from their
efforts not to scream. So, without changing that dreadful stare which she
had maintained throughout her performance, she said, as though repeating
Mrs. Stone's own words:

"Come back--come back--come back, my Bonny, to me," and turned to leave
the pantry. She had barely gotten outside the door, however, when she
paused, and, muttering something about lemons and pickles, slipped away
from Mrs. Stone's grasp and disappeared within the pantry again.

Trembling with excitement, Mrs. Stone stood for one instant, and then
saying, "Miss Preston must be called, Miss Preston must be called," turned
and literally flew up the stairs, for once too lost to everything but the
matter in hand to be aware of anything else, which was certainly fortunate
for the white-robed figures, which nearly fell over each other in their
scramble to escape.

CHAPTER XII

"HAVE YOU NOT BEEN DECEIVED THIS TIME?"

When Miss Preston arrived upon the scene Toinette was serenely making her
wa