He had been up in the attic, and climbed through the scuttle, without finding any human Fly on the roof, or on the dizzy tops of the chimneys, either.
But where was the child?
Had Ruth seen her?
Had Abner?
No; the last that could be remembered, she had been playing by herself in the green chamber, soaking Dinah's feet in a glass of water.

The "blue kitty," the only creature who had anything to tell, sat washing her face on the kitchen hearth, and yawning sleepily.

Fly's shaker was gone from the "short nail," and aunt Louise discovered some bank-bills in a wash-bowl,--"Fly's work, of course." But this was all they knew.
Grandpa searched the barn, Abner the fields, Ruth the cellar; aunt Louise and Horace ran down to the river.

In half an hour several of the neighbors had joined in the search.
"I always thought there would be a last time," said poor Mrs.Dr.
Gray, putting on her black bonnet, and joining Grace and Susy.

"That child seems to me like a little spirit, or a fairy, and I never thought she would live long.