"Paulina will get supper for you and Nell and herself and we'll let Daphne and the maids look after themselves. Daphne will be glad to get off."
So it was arranged, very quickly, that Nell was to stay with Jannet again.
The next morning was rainy. Nell came over to the Van Meter farm between showers, but late, and Jannet declared that it was a shame how much it rained in the country, where it ought always to be bright.
Nell laughed at that and told Jannet that nothing would grow for them without the rain. "We have nothing but good showers, Jannet, mostly, at least. Besides, what fun it will be up in the attic, listening to the 'rain upon the roof.'"
"That is so, Nell, and it will be cooler up there, too, if it rains."
Jannet led the way to the attic as soon as Nell had laid aside her raincoat. Rather timidly Nell entered, when with a flourish Jannet threw open the attic door. "Behold the mysterious abode of ghosts, and our ancestral treasure house!"
"Well, it _looks_ innocent enough, Jannet!"
"It certainly does, but back in the shadows beyond our ghosts may have their lurking place!"
"All right, Nell, we want to have lots of fun to-day. I'm crazy to show you some of the things I've peeped at, and I hated to get out too much, too, without somebody after me. But we'll have no interruptions this afternoon, with everybody away that would bother us, though Cousin Di, Andy and Uncle Pieter won't leave the house till a short time before supper. Will you mind if I get supper for us? Daphne will have everything ready."
"It will be fun, Jannet. I'll help you. You didn't know that I'm a very fine cook, did you? Honestly, Jannet, I'm learning to do _some_ things very well, Mother says."
But while the merry tongues ran on, it was more interesting to get to business. Jannet pointed out some of the trunks and told what she had seen by peeping into them. Her grandmother's trunk was "sweet," she said; but she had felt almost as if she were opening a grave to disturb the things folded away so carefully after her grandmother's passing. It was different with her mother's, she felt, and a big trunk, old, but in good condition was full of old silk dresses and costumes that Jannet had only had time to discover, much less examine. "I'm a gregarious being, Nell, after being with such a lot of girls most of my life, and it wasn't enough fun to get these things out by myself."