"Have you had your breakfast?" said Fanny. Then Ellen was utterly quiet. She did not speak; she made no sign or motion. She sat still, looking straight before her. "Don't you hear, Ellen?" said Andrew. "Have you had your breakfast this morning?" "Tell Auntie Eva if you have had your breakfast," Eva said. Mrs. Zelotes Brewster spoke with more authority, and she went further. "Tell grandmother if you have had your breakfast, and where you had it," said she. But Ellen was dumb and motionless. They all looked at one another. "Tell Aunty Wetherhed: that's a good girl," said the stout woman. "Where are those things she had when I first saw her?" asked Mrs. Zelotes, suddenly. Eva went into the sitting-room, and fetched them out--the bunch of pinks, the cup and saucer, and the doll. Ellen's eyes gave a quick look of love and delight at the doll. "She had these, luggin' along in her little arms, when I first caught sight of her comin'," said Eva. "Where did you get them, Ellen?" asked Fanny. "Who gave them to you?" Ellen was silent, with all their inquiring eyes fixed upon her face like a compelling battery. "Where have you been, Ellen, all the time you have been gone?" asked Mrs. Zelotes. "Now you have got back safe, you must tell us where you have been." Andrew stooped his head down to the child's, and rubbed his rough cheek against her soft one, with his old facetious caress. "Tell father where you've been," he whispered. Ellen gave him a little piteous glance, and her lip quivered, but she did not speak. "Where do you s'pose she got them?" whispered one neighbor to another. "I can't imagine; that's a beautiful doll." "Ain't it? It must have cost a lot. I know, because my Hattie had one her aunt gave her last Christmas; that one cost a dollar and ninety-eight cents, and it didn't begin to compare with this. That's a handsome cup and saucer, too." "Yes, but you can get real handsome cups and saucers to Crosby's for twenty-five cents. I don't think so much of that." "Them pinks must have come from a greenhouse." "Yes, they must." "Well, there's lots of greenhouses in the city besides the florists. That don't help much." Then the first woman inclined her lips closely to the other woman's ear and whispered, causing the other to start back. "No, I can't believe she would," said she. "She came from those Louds on her mother's side," whispered the first woman, guardedly, with dark emphasis. "Ellen," said Fanny, suddenly, and almost sharply, "you didn't take those things in any way you hadn't ought to, did you? Tell mother." "Fanny!" cried Andrew. "If she did, it's the first time a Brewster ever stole," said Mrs. Zelotes. Her face was no longer strange with unwonted sweetness as she looked at Fanny. Andrew put his face down to Ellen's again. "Father knows she didn't steal the things; never mind," he whispered.