the vinaigrette in the slop-jar and jumped down from the wash-stand.

[Illustration: I sat down on the pincushion.]

Her high, old-fashioned bureau tempted me next. There were rows and
rows of pins in a big blue pincushion, put in as evenly as if it had
been done by a machine. I pulled them out, one by one, and dropped
them down behind the bureau. It took some time to do that, but at last
the blue cushion was empty, and I sat down on it to examine the
jewel-case at my leisure. I found the prettiest things in it; an
open-faced locket, set around with pearls, with the picture of a
beautiful young girl in it; a string of bright coral beads, and a
little carnelian ring, and a gold dollar hung on a faded ribbon.

I forgot to tell you that Miss Patricia's bay window is full of
flowers, and that she has a mocking-bird hanging in a cage above the
wire stand that holds her ferns and foliage plants. The mocking-bird's
name is Dick. Now Dick hadn't paid any attention to me until I opened
the jewel-case. As I did so I knocked a hairbrush off the bureau to
the floor, which must have frightened him, for he began to cry out as
if something had caught hold of him. Then he whistled, as if he were
calling a dog. You have no idea what a racket he made. I was afraid
that some of the servants might hear him and come to see what was the
matter. Then, of course, I would be turned out of the room before I
had finished examining all the pretty things. I turned around and
shook my fist at him and chattered at him as savagely as I knew how,
but he kept on, first making that hoarse cry and then whistling as if
calling to a dog.

I determined to stop him in some way or another, so, not waiting to