“I’ll remember,” said Wendell.
CHAPTER XIV
THE MAGIC BOOK
It was usually very hard to get him to wake up Saturday mornings, but this Saturday was an exception. He was up with the lark,—if there had been any,—ate his breakfast before the rest of the family came down, and was soon on his way over the now familiar route, to the Brookline house. He had timed it nicely. The Giant was just leaving as he got there; and Wendell, only too well aware that his scent was now well-known to the Giant, scuttled down a side street until the monster was out of sight.
Into the familiar kitchen once more, and all through the house, went Wendell. The mother and daughter were doing the upstairs work and Wendell sat around with them for some time, following a confusion of most uninteresting household details that ran through their minds.
At length he was repaid.
“I guess I’ll get my warm quilt out for the winter,” thought the girl. “It’s getting cold these nights. Now, where did Mummer put that attic key? If I ask her, she probably won’t tell me, just to be mean. I’ll hunt around, instead.”
Presently, the Witch went downstairs, and her daughter took that opportunity to look through her mother’s bureau drawers; and after some search, she found it.
“I’d better wait,” she thought, “till Mummer goes marketing. Then I’ll put the key back again and say nothing about it.”
But she had no sooner gone downstairs, herself, than Wendell took the key and unlocked the attic door. He took the precaution of locking it again on the inside, so that there could be no intrusion while he was searching for the Book. He chuckled to think how chagrined the Ugly Stepsister would be when she went to look for the key and thought her mother had changed its hiding-place.