d a pale green silk, and a fine soft lawn from her mother's
put aside wardrobe, and her mind's eye saw herself most becomingly, and
beautifully dressed in them--if mama would only consent.

Over in the corner, something caught her eye presently, that she had
never seen before. Only a small dark trunk with an air of secrecy about
it; and something irresistibly took her right over to it, with her arm
load of gay things.

"I wonder what it is," she mused, fingering the lock curiously, and
feeling so strange as she did so.

"Go away!" something seemed to say imperatively; but she lingered, and
fingered more curiously than ever the small key attached to a faded
ribbon.

"Go away! Go away!" seemed to come again that voice, and she felt it to
her inmost soul; but the very realization of an inward warning against
it, urged her on. She put the key in the lock,--and hesitated; turned it
slowly,--and hesitated again; then broke into a nervous little laugh,
and tossed the cover open.

[Illustration: "NOW LET'S SEE WHAT'S IN THIS WONDERFUL TRUNK."]

"Why I'm as cold as ice, what a goose! Now let's see what's in this
wonderful trunk to make me feel so funny; something splendid I guess,
but I couldn't help opening it, I really couldn't,--oh dear!"

It was of disappointment, for there was nothing there but a queer old
basket, a pillow, with a plain little slip, and a worn faded letter on
top.

CHAPTER XI.

WHERE IS ERNESTINE?

The odor of hot cakes brought everybody in a hurry, when Kat opened the
dining-room door, and shouted, "supper!" as though she was a pop-gun and
the single word a deadly fire, and everybody had fallen to work at
demolishing the pile of aforesaid cakes, before Bea looked up suddenly
and asked:

"Where is Ernestine?"

Nobody knew, but Kat ventured, that perhaps she was going to supper it,
on gloves and feathers.

"You better call again, Kat, perhaps she didn't hear."

So Kat rushed to the door, and shouted:

"Er-nes-tin-e-e, cakes are getting cold," with an amount of energy and
noise that might have reached that young lady, had she been sitting on
the top-most round of the farthest chimney; but there was no response
of any kind, neither was there any indications of a light up stairs, so
Kat went back, remarking, as she again fell to work:

"She's put on her new toggery, most likely, and gone somewhere."

"But where should she go?" asked Bea with a strange uneasiness.

"Anywhere, just