"No, ma'am; I don't think she's awake yet; I reckon she's a- oversleepin' of herself. And I would 'a' waked her up, only, ma'am, you bid me not to do it."
"What, do you mean to say that she has not yet made her appearance?" demanded Claudia, in alarm.
"Nobody aint seen nothing 'tall of her this morning, ma'am."
"Go to her room at once and see if she is ill. She may be, you know. Go in quietly, so that you will not awaken her if she should be asleep," said Claudia, in alarm, for she suddenly remembered that people of Katie's age and habit sometimes die suddenly and are found dead in their beds.
Sally went on her errand, and Claudia stood waiting and listening breathlessly until her return.
"Laws, ma'am, Aunt Katie's done got up, and made her bed up and put her room to rights, and gone downstairs," said Sally, as she entered the room.
"Then go at once, and if she has had her breakfast send her up to me. Strange she did not come."
Sally departed on this errand also, but she was gone longer than on the first. It was nearly half an hour before she returned. She came in with a scared face, saying:
"Ma'am, it's very odd; but the servants say as ole Aunt Katie hasn't been down this morning."
"Hasn't been down this morning? And is not in her room either?" cried Claudia, in amazement.