children were all eyes at Viny and her costume, but they said never
a word while she howled on steadily, only ejaculating in an occasional
gust, "O Miss Sylvy--Miss Sylvy!"

Caryl, white as a sheet, rushed out of the carriage and into the old
lodging house the instant the horses paused by the broken gate. Maum
Patty was singing in the little kitchen the refrain she never indulged
in except in her most complacent moods. Flinging wide the door, Caryl
panted out, "Oh, what is it! Tell me at once!"

"Lawks!" exclaimed Maum Patty, startled from her peaceful enjoyment, and
turning so suddenly in the old calico-covered chair that she sent her
spectacles spinning into the middle of the floor. "Massy, how yer look!
Tain't wurth it--don't! He hain't spile't it; I stopped him," she added
exultingly.

"Stopped what?" echoed Caryl in bewildered distress. "Oh, do tell me!
Is'nt Aunt Sylvia sick? Tell me, Maum Patty," she pleaded. And she
grasped the old woman's arm in an agony of suspense.

"Massy, no!" declared Maum Patty in her most cheery tones, "she's ben
a-laughin' fit to kill herself, an' I don't wonder, for the little
rascal looked as cunnin' as an imp. But I stopped him I stopped him!"
she added triumphantly.

Caryl had no strength to ask further, nor to stir. The reaction was too
great, and she leaned up against the door for support.

"He shuck it, an' shuck it," said the old woman, laughing immoderately.
"Laws, how he shuck it--dat Jip did--yer aunt's beyeutiful cap with the
new puppel ribbons! Ye see it tumbled off; I dunno wedder she sneezed,
or wot she did, but anyway, it tumbled off on de flo', and dat little
pison scamp jumped up from his rug an' cotched it, an' she a-callin'
an'a-callin, fit ver die--I'll snake dat Viny w'en I gets her.--Lawks,
but I couldn't help it! I laughed till I cried to see dat dog carry on.
Luckily I run up just when I did to pay my 'specs to de Missis, for--I
stopped him, I stopped him," she brought herself up to declare, wiping
her eyes.

"Viny," said Caryl, in her little room, an hour after, when everything
had been confessed and forgiven; when the delightful story had all come
out, how they were really and truly to move that very afternoon; how
Madam Grant had paid the rent in advance for the sunny rooms in the
little cottage, and they were just driving around to surprise Aunt
Sylvia when they witnessed Viny's escapade; how the carriage was to come
before very long to take dear Aun