“Some persons must have entered my room, last night!”
“Entered your room!” exclaimed Mrs. Carlton, turning a little pale, and forgetting what she was about, so far as to overflow the cup she was filling with coffee.
“Did they steal any thing, Uncle?” asked Hugh, in a voice made husky by the alarm he felt at the idea of burglars having been in the house.
“Mind, my dear, you are flooding the tea-tray with coffee,” said Mr. Carlton, pointing to the overflow of coffee in front of his lady.
“Did you see them?” inquired Jessie, also pale with alarm.
These questions were put so rapidly one after the other, that Uncle Morris had no chance to explain himself for a few moments. Silence, however, followed Jessie’s question. Then the old gentleman relaxed his muscles, smiled, and said—
“I neither saw nor heard the intruders; yet, I found unquestionable marks of their having been in my room. They even made a hole in one of the walls! Yet, strange as it may appear, they not only took nothing away, but, on the contrary, they left one of the sweetest little chamber ornaments behind them I ever saw. Such burglars are welcome to enter my room every night!”
“O Uncle Morris! I know what you mean,” said Jessie, laughing, and shaking her forefinger at him.
Mr. Morris’s last words and his changed manner, had, of course, relieved all parties of their alarm, though none but Guy and his sister knew precisely what he meant.
“I shouldn’t wonder if you did. Even the bird knows where it finds food, much more should intruders know where they intruded,” replied Uncle Morris.