"'Coming events cast their shadows before,'" said Uncle Ted; "here come the
wardrobes of the Carleton family."
"They must have sent them by express yesterday," said Aunt Grace; "dear me,
how forehanded some people are. I wish I had been born that way. But when I
go anywhere I take my trunk with me, and then I always leave it behind."
They all laughed at this paradoxical statement, and Uncle Ted said, "That's
where you differ from an elephant." Then as the trunks were set out on the
veranda, he exclaimed, "Good gracious, my dear, these aren't the Carleton's
trunks. They're marked "'F. M. T.,'--both of them."
"'F.M.T.,'" echoed Mrs. Barlow, "why, who can that be?"
"The Carletons have borrowed other people's trunks to come with," suggested
Nan.
"Not they," returned Aunt Grace; "they're the most particular people on the
face of the earth. Why Kate Carleton would as soon think of borrowing a
house as a trunk. No, these belong to somebody else. And I know who it is!
It's Fanny Todd. Before I left home I asked her to come down here the first
week in August, and I never thought of it again from that day to this.
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