“We don’t generally dream the same thing at the same minute,” said Carol stormily.  “I tell you he’s in there.”

“And you two great big girls came off and left poor little Connie in there alone with a burglar, did you?  Well, you are nice ones, I must say.”

And Prudence leaped out of bed and started for the door, followed by Fairy, with the twins creeping fearfully along in the rear.

“She was asleep,” muttered Carol.

“We didn’t want to scare her,” added Lark.

Prudence was careful to turn the switch by the door, so that the room was in full light before she entered.  The closet door was wide open.  Connie was soundly sleeping.  There was no one else in the room.

“You see?” said Prudence sternly.

“I’ll bet he took our ruby rings,” declared Lark, and the twins and Fairy ran to the dresser to look.

But a sickening realization had come home to Prudence.  In the lower hall, under the staircase, was a small dark closet which they called the dungeon.  The dungeon door was big and solid, and was equipped with a heavy catch-lock.  In this dungeon, Prudence kept the family silverware, and all the money she had on hand, as it could there be safely locked away.  But more often than not, Prudence forgot to lock it.

Mr. Starr had gone to Burlington that morning to attend special revival services for three days, and Prudence had fifty whole dollars in the house, an unwonted sum in that parsonage!  And the dungeon was not locked.  Without a word, she slipped softly out of the room, ran down the stairs, making never a sound in her bare feet, and saw, somewhat to her surprise, that the dungeon door was open.  Quickly she flung it shut, pushed the tiny key that moved the “catch,” and was rushing up the stairs again with never a pause for breath.

A strange sight met her eyes in the twins’ room.  The twins themselves were in each other’s arms, sobbing bitterly.  Fairy was still looking hurriedly through the dresser drawers.

“They are gone,” wailed Carol, “our beautiful ruby rings that belonged to grandmother.”

“Nonsense,” cried Prue with nervous anger, “you’ve left them in the bathroom, or on the kitchen shelves.  You’re always leaving them somewhere over the place.  Come on, and we’ll search the house just to convince you.”

“No, no,” shrieked the twins.  “Let’s lock the door and get under the bed.”

The rings were really valuable.  Their grandmother, their mother’s mother, whom they had never seen, had divided her “real jewelry” between her two daughters.  And the mother of these parsonage girls, had further divided her portion to make it reach through her own family of girls!  Prudence had a small but beautiful chain of tiny pearls.  Fairy’s share consisted of a handsome brooch, with a “sure-enough diamond” in the center!  The twin rubies of another brooch had been reset in rings for Carol and Lark, and were the priceless treasures of their lives!  And in the dungeon was a solid gold bracelet, waiting until Connie’s arm should be sufficiently developed to do it justice.