splendid circular sweeps of a wooden spoon a creamy
yellow mass. She looked up as her sister entered.

"Have you got it done?" said she.

"Yes," replied Amanda. Then she hesitated. A sudden terror overcame
her. It did not seem as if it were at all probable that Sophia had
left that foamy cake mixture a second to go to Aunt Harriet's chamber
and remove that purple gown.

"Well," said Sophia, "if you have got that done I wish you would take
hold and string those beans. The first thing we know there won't be
time to boil them for dinner."

Amanda moved toward the pan of beans on the table, then she looked at
her sister.

"Did you come up in Aunt Harriet's room while I was there?" she asked
weakly.

She knew while she asked what the answer would be.

"Up in Aunt Harriet's room? Of course I didn't. I couldn't leave this
cake without having it fall. You know that well enough. Why?"

"Nothing," replied Amanda.

Suddenly she realized that she could not tell her sister what had
happened, for before the utter absurdity of the whole thing her belief
in her own reason quailed. She knew what Sophia would say if she told
her. She could hear her.

"Amanda Gill, have you gone stark staring mad?"

She resolved that she would never tell Sophia. She dropped into a
chair and begun shelling the beans with nerveless fingers. Sophia
looked at her curiously.

"Amanda Gill, what on earth ails you?" she asked.

"Nothing," replied Amanda. She bent her head very low over the green
pods.

"Yes, there is, too! You are as white as a sheet, and your hands are
shaking so you can hardly string those beans. I did think you had more
sense, Amanda Gill."

"I don't know what you mean, Sophia."

"Yes, you do know what I mean, too; you needn't pretend you don't. Why
did you ask me if I had been in that room, and why do you act so queer?"

Amanda hesitated. She had been trained to truth. Then she lied.

"I wondered if you'd noticed how it had leaked in on the paper over by
the bureau, that last rain," said she.

"What makes you look so pale then?"

"I don't know. I guess the heat sort of overcame me."

"I shouldn't think it could have been very hot in that room when it had
been shut up so long," said Sophia.

She was evidently not satisfied, but then the grocer came to the door
and the matter dropped.

For the next hour the two women were very busy. They kept no servant.
When they had come into possession of t