mysteriously. "Take me up on your knee," she said. "There's
something wrong going on in this house."

Mr. Sarrazin took her on his knee, and rashly asked what had gone
wrong. Kitty's reply puzzled him.

"I go to mamma's room every morning when I wake," the child
began. "I get into her bed, and I give her a kiss, and I say
'Good-morning'--and sometimes, if she isn't in a hurry to get up,
I stop in her bed, and go to sleep again. Mamma thought I was
asleep this morning. I wasn't asleep--I was only quiet. I don't
know why I was quiet."

Mr. Sarrazin's kindness still encouraged her. "Well," he said,
"and what happened after that?"

"Grandmamma came in. She told mamma to keep up her spirits. She
says, 'It will all be over in a few hours more.' She says, 'What
a burden it will be off your mind!' She says, 'Is that child
asleep?' And mamma says, 'Yes.' And grandmamma took one of
mamma's towels. And I thought she was going to wash herself. What
would _you_ have thought?"

Mr. Sarrazin began to doubt whether he would do well to discuss
Mrs. Presty's object in taking the towel. He only said, "Go on."

"Grandmamma dipped it into the water-jug," Kitty continued, with
a grave face; "but she didn't wash herself. She went to one of
mamma's boxes. Though she's so old, she's awfully strong, I can
tell you. She rubbed off the luggage-label in no time. Mamma