him, and bend down and talk and try to make
something like robin sounds.

Oh! to think that he should actually let her come
as near to him as that! He knew nothing in the
world would make her put out her hand toward
him or startle him in the least tiniest way. He
knew it because he was a real person -- only nicer
than any other person in the world. She was so
happy that she scarcely dared to breathe.

The flower-bed was not quite bare. It was
bare of flowers because the perennial plants had
been cut down for their winter rest, but there were
tall shrubs and low ones which grew together at
the back of the bed, and as the robin hopped about
under them she saw him hop over a small pile of
freshly turned up earth. He stopped on it to look
for a worm. The earth had been turned up because
a dog had been trying to dig up a mole and
he had scratched quite a deep hole.

Mary looked at it, not really knowing why the
hole was there, and as she looked she saw something
almost burled in the newly-turned soil. It
was something like a ring of rusty iron or brass
and when the robin flew up into a tree nearby
she put out her hand and picked the ring up. It
was more than a ring, however; it was an old key
which looked as if it had been buried a long time.

Mistress Mary stood up and looked at it with

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