se; what was it?"

"Well, one day last week, just before the school-teacher came, I went
in that room to see if there were any clouds. I wanted to wear my gray
dress, and I was afraid it was going to rain, so I wanted to look at
the sky at all points, so I went in there, and--"

"And what?"

"Well, you know that chintz over the bed, and the valance, and the easy
chair; what pattern should you say it was?"

"Why, peacocks on a blue ground. Good land, I shouldn't think any one
who had ever seen that would forget it."

"Peacocks on a blue ground, you are sure?"

"Of course I am. Why?"

"Only when I went in there that afternoon it was not peacocks on a blue
ground; it was great red roses on a yellow ground."

"Why, what do you mean?"

"What I say."

"Did Miss Sophia have it changed?"

"No. I went in there again an hour later and the peacocks were there."

"You didn't see straight the first time."

"I expected you would say that."

"The peacocks are there now; I saw them just now."

"Yes, I suppose so; I suppose they flew back."

"But they couldn't."

"Looks as if they did."

"Why, how could such a thing be? It couldn't be."

"Well, all I know is those peacocks were gone for an hour that
afternoon and the red roses on the yellow ground were there instead."

The widow stared at her a moment, then she began to laugh rather
hysterically.

"Well," said she, "I guess I sha'n't give up my nice room for any such
tomfoolery as that. I guess I would just as soon have red roses on a
yellow ground as peacocks on a blue; but there's no use talking, you
couldn't have seen straight. How could such a thing have happened?"

"I don't know," said Eliza Lippincott; "but I know I wouldn't sleep in
that room if you'd give me a thousand dollars."

"Well, I would," said the widow, "and I'm going to."

When Mrs. Simmons went to the southwest chamber that night she cast a
glance at the bed-hanging and the easy chair. There were the peacocks
on the blue ground. She gave a contemptuous thought to Eliza
Lippincott.

"I don't believe but she's getting nervous," she thought. "I wonder if
any of her family have been out at all."

But just before Mrs. Simmons was ready to get into bed she looked again
at the hangings and the easy chair, and there were the red roses on the
yellow ground instead of the peacocks on the blue. She looked long and
sharply. Then she shut her eyes, and then opened them and looked. She