Now try, dear, to be reasonable, and I will get up and see what it is.' "'But don't leave me, and I will try to be good,' I exclaimed, jumping out of bed at the same moment that she did, and clinging to her as she moved.

'Oh, Mary, don't you think perhaps we'd better go back to bed and put our fingers in our ears, and by morning it wouldn't seem anything.' "'And fancy ever after that there had been something mysterious, when perhaps it is something quite simple,' said Mary.

'No, I shouldn't like that at all.

Of course I won't do anything rash, but I would like to find out.' "'The fire, fortunately, was not yet quite out.

Mary lighted one of the candles with a bit of paper from a spark which she managed to coax into a flame.