a skilful glazier. The cistern was emptied of its stagnant water
and thoroughly cleansed, and the gutters were repaired as well as
they could be before the arrival of Captain Johnson and the
lumber.

It was not until the windows and gutters were repaired that Mrs.
Elmer would allow any of the furniture, not absolutely needed, to
be unpacked, for fear it might be injured by the dampness. Among
the packages that thus remained boxed up, or wrapped in burlaps,
was one which none of them could remember having seen before. It
was large and square, and different in shape from anything that
had stood in their house in Norton. What could it be? Mark and
Ruth asked each other this question a dozen times a day, and, but
for their mother's refusal to allow them to do so, would have long
since solved the riddle by opening the package.

On Friday night the house was pronounced to be practically water-
tight, and at breakfast-time the following morning Mrs. Elmer said
they would unpack and arrange the furniture that day.

"And the mystery?" cried Mark. "May we open that first?"
"Certainly," replied his mother; "you may, if you wish, open that
the moment you have finished breakfast."

"That's this very minute, ain't it, Ruth? Come along. We'll soon
find out what's inside those burlaps," exclaimed the boy, pushing
back his chair, and rising from the table as he spoke.

He brought a hammer with which to knock off the rough frame of
boards that almost formed a box around the package, and Ruth ran