“Oh, Janet! Why did you hide in the trunk?” asked Mrs. Martin, helping her out. “You might have smothered in there!”
“I—I ’most did,” sobbed Janet.
“Did you put her in there, Teddy?” asked his mother.
“Oh, no,” he answered.
“I got in myself,” Janet hastened to say. “I opened the trunk to look at some of the dresses, for Mrs. Pitney said we might. And I leaned over to see those on the bottom, and I fell in. I slipped all the way in and then the lid fell down and I couldn’t get it up.”
“That was too bad,” said Mrs. Martin kindly. “It’s lucky some one was up here with you or you might have been in the trunk a long time before you were let out. Old trunks like this sometimes fasten with a spring catch that is hard to open.”
“I’ll close this so Trouble won’t get in,” said Ted as he lowered the lid.
“I no hide in any trunks,” the little fellow announced. “I got better place as that. Come see,” he added, tugging at his mother’s hand to lead her into the corner where he had been rummaging.
“No, I don’t believe I want to go there. I’d get covered with cobwebs like you!” laughed Mrs. Martin. “But come, children. It’s time you were in bed. Put things back where you found them and we’ll go downstairs.”
The spinning wheels were set back against the beams under the sloping roof of the old-fashioned attic. Trouble wanted to take the string of sleigh bells down to bed with him, but this could not be allowed. Janet gave one last look at the trunk which had been her prison for a short time and went with her mother and Ted.