Kezia went back reluctantly to her bed.

"Let us trust she'll be visited with a plague of nightmare burglars!" Denis sent after her cheerfully.

Nell, creeping back to her room, heard through the half-open door a murmur. She looked in, and saw a small pig-tailed figure sitting up in bed clasping something black to its bosom.

"Oh, my own K.K.—did I say I wasn't wantin' you, asthore? 'Twas only because I was frightened I'd cry, like that silly Molly. I didn't mean it, K.K. Oh, I didn't! 'Twas cruel of me to say it, dear—" The murmur was broken, full of tears.

Nell went back softly up a few stairs; then came down again, with a little stumble and an "Oh!"

She could not help an apprehensive thought of Miss Kezia and burglars. When she entered the bedroom Sheila Pat lay still, apparently fast asleep.

Trotting across the floor, back to the petticoat she had purloined from a chair, went a sedate little Kate Kearney.