A RAINY DAY 13 
and with whom she spent every week-end, going down with 
the mail-carrier on his return trip Friday evening and 
usually walking back on Sunday afternoon if no one 
chanced to be driving that way. Mrs. Wilde had been ill 
the Sunday before and Miss Wilde had not heard a word 
all the week. Everything had gone awry that morning, 
and when the last child had filed out for the dinner-hour 
and gone splish-splashing up the muddy road, before 
straightening out the room as usual, Miss Wilde sat down 
at the desk, her head in her hands, and two big tears splashed 
down on the inky blotting-paper before her. Presently she 
wiped her eyes, opened all the windows that the rain did 
not enter, took her box of luncheon from her desk, and 
walked slowly down the side aisle to the little porch, 
which also acted as the cloak-room, the place where she 
usually ate her luncheon when it was too cool or wet to go 
outdoors. 
As she passed Tommy Todd’s desk she thought she heard 
a noise, and glanced sideways, half expecting to see him 
crouching under it, bent upon some prank. No one was 
there, and still there was a scratching sound in that 
vicinity. Opening the desk lid, Miss Wilde gave a scream, 
for inside was the new trap and inside the trap two wicked- 
looking old rats whose whiskers had evidently grown gray 
with experience. 
“T wonder what he would have done with them if I 
had not found him out?” she said to herself, as she lifted 
the cage, by hooking the crook of her umbrella into the 
handle on the top, and carrying it with the greatest care, 
put it into the empty wood-box in the porch. Then she 
seated herself on the bench by the outer door and un- 
