"Why, you know you did."
"Wasn't it a question, Rebecca?" Phœbe insisted. "Didn't I ask you ef I hadn't told you I heard a burglar?"
"No, it was a plain downright wrong story, Phœbe, an' you needn't to try to sneak out of it."
Phœbe was silent for a few moments, and then Rebecca heard her laugh. It was a very little, rippling thing—but it was genuine—there was real light-heartedness behind it.
"Phœbe Wise!" exclaimed Rebecca, "how ken you laugh so? I wouldn't hev the weight of sech a thing on my mind fer a good deal."
"Well, Rebecca," tittered her sister, "I didn't have it on my mind yesterday, did I?"
"Course not—but——"
"An' won't it be yesterday for us mighty soon—yes, an' a heap longer ago than that?"
She laughed again merrily and began to climb over the wall, a proceeding not rendered easier by the various articles in her hands.
A few minutes later the two women had joined Copernicus within his mysterious machine and were standing in the brightly lighted antechamber at the head of the stairs.