“I’m in this big trunk, Teddy. The lid fell down and I can’t push it up and I can’t get out.”
“Oh! In a trunk!” yelled Ted. Now he understood. And this was why Janet’s voice sounded so muffled and far away. It came from inside a big trunk, of which there were three or four in the attic. It was as if she had been speaking from down in the cellar.
Teddy did not stop to ask how Janet had gotten inside the trunk. There was time enough for that after he had gotten her out—if he could. He sprang away from the spinning wheels and hurried over to the big old-fashioned trunks.
“Are you in this one, Jan?” he asked, as he started to raise the lid of one.
“No, I’m in here,” came the answer.
Teddy sprang to the next trunk. Just as he was tugging on the lid, which seemed tightly fastened, Mrs. Martin came up the stairs.
Mrs. Martin saw what Teddy was about to do and she called to him:
“Teddy! Teddy! Don’t open that trunk. Mrs. Pitney won’t like it if you open her trunks. She was kind enough to let you play in the attic, but you mustn’t open trunks!”
“But I got to, Mother!” exclaimed Teddy.
“Why do you have to?”