"Well, I haven't one for him; but we will go and have a look, while Jane sweeps a little; perhaps we may find something which will serve for one." They went back into the box-room. "Here is a little round table with one leg off," announced Alice, from the depths of a corner. "Is the leg there?" "I can't see it." "Then it's of no use." "My eyes are sharp," exclaimed Minnie, jumping over the boxes and bundles and sliding down somewhere near Alice. "How you startled me!" said Alice; "but however sharp your eyes are, Miss Minnie, you won't find it here." But she did for all that. She went to work carefully, poking about with her little hands without disturbing anything, and when the others had given it up as hopeless, a joyful cry from her announced its discovery. They were just fitting it into its place and considering whether Hugh would be able to mend it, when the two boys came rushing up the stairs from school. "I'm moved up!" exclaimed Hugh, long before he got in sight of his sisters. "Whatever are you girls doing up here? Isn't that jolly for me?" They congratulated him on this joyful piece of school news, and then Agnes, who had been holding the handle of John's door in her hand all this time, said solemnly: "John, the dirt in your room has disappeared by magic!" "_How?_" asked John. "By magic--look!" She flung the door open, and the boys crowded in. "Well," exclaimed John, "words fail me!" Then he paused as his eyes fell upon his text in its new setting. "Agnes!" "That's with my best love," answered Agnes, blushing. "It is worth framing." [Illustration] CHAPTER XXII. _MINNIE'S SECRET._ And so the time slipped away. Alice and Minnie found that when once they made up their minds to regular lessons with their sister they began to take an interest in them, and were really happier than they would have been to be idle. Soon after they began one morning, aunt Phyllis's sweet face peeped in at the door. "Any admittance, my dears?" she asked. "Oh, do come in!" said Agnes, springing up to welcome her. "I have thought of something which I am burning to propose to you," said Miss Headley, coming round to kiss each in turn. "What is it?" asked Minnie, laying down her pen and pushing back her curls. Aunt Phyllis did not answer till she had seated herself by the fire, then she said: "You go out for your 'constitutional' directly after your early dinner, do you not, dears?" "Yes," said Alice, "and I wish we didn't." Aunt Phyllis shook her head. "It is quite right, I have not come in to alter that, little puss." Alice pouted just a very little, and Miss Headley went on: "You come home about three, do you not?" "Half past," said Agnes. "What do you do then?" "We work, or learn lessons, or gape, or are idle," said Alice, smiling a little.