Teddy’s mother sat down in the front room to entertain them, and Aunt Ann hurried out to see about supper.  How lucky it was that she had boiled a ham that very morning!  Pink slices of ham, with nice biscuit and butter, were not to be despised even by city guests.  She had also a golden comb of honey, brought to the house by a countryman a few hours before; it looked really elegant as she set it on the table in a cut-glass dish.  Then there were,—­oh, moment of suspense! would she find any left?—­yes; there were enough sweet crisp seed-cakes to fill a plate.

The table was set—­the tea with its fine aroma, and the coffee, amber-clear, were made.  The cream was on, so was the sugar-bowl, and Aunt Ann was just going to summon her guests, when she happened to think to lift the sugar-bowl cover and peep in.  Sure enough, there wasn’t a lump there!

“I must run and fill it!” exclaimed Aunt Ann, lifting it in a hurry, and starting; but she had to stop to think in what direction to go.

“Where was it I put that sugar?” she asked herself.

In the camphor chest?  No.  In the potatoes?  No; she remembered thinking they were not clean enough.  Was it anywhere up garret?  If she went there and looked around, maybe it would come into her mind.  She did go there, sugar-bowl in hand, and she did look around, but all in vain—­she could not think where she had put that two dollars’ worth of sugar!

And time was flying, the sun was setting—­pretty soon the moon would be up.  How hungry the company must be, and they must wonder why supper wasn’t ready.  It would never do to sit down to the table with an empty sugar-bowl, for Aunt Wright always wanted her tea extra sweet, and Uncle Wright never could drink coffee without his eight lumps in the cup.  Dear, dear!  Aunt Ann was all in a flurry. Why had she ever undertaken to hide that sugar!

“I shall certainly have to send to the store for some more!” she said to herself, “and that will take so long; but it can’t be helped.”

So she spoke to Teddy, who was sitting in the dining-room window apparently studying his geography lesson, but in reality wondering what in the world Aunt Ann was fluttering all over the house so uneasily for.

“Run to the store, Teddy!” she said quickly; “get me half a dollar’s worth of loaf sugar as soon as ever you can.”

“Why, Aunt Ann,” he replied, “what for?  I should think you had sugar enough already.”

“So I have!” she exclaimed, nervously.  “I got two dollars’ worth day before yesterday, and I hid it away in a safe place to keep it from you, and now, to save my life, I can’t think where I put it, and I’ve searched high and low.  Hurry!”

Teddy smiled upon her benignly.

“You should have told me sooner what you were looking for,” he said.  “That sugar is on the upper shelf of your wardrobe, in your muff-box in the farther corner.  It is very nice sugar, Aunt Ann!”