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[[underline]] THE TRUNKS. [[/underline]]

Bur not less disturbing was the problem of my mother's twenty-two trunks. These black canvas mamoths which followed us about everywhere were so alike that no brain, however clairvoyant, could divine the secrets of their contents. Their keeper, a wretched, sleepy maid, was quite inadequate to her task. As it was my mother's habit to demand suddenly some garment hidden within one of these twenty-two trunks, this maid would appear, rattling a large bunch of keys, despair written on her face. Like an automaton she would approach one of the trunks, collapse on her knees beside it, and with nervous hands try to insert one key after the other. Some would go in, some would not, but none would open the lock. The whole bunch of her trembling hands would then jingle as though alive and in league against her.

The household attracted by these unavailing efforts, would draw near and offer aid. In any one else's hands the lock would suddenly fly open and allow the heavy trays to be lifted in and out of the trunk. The garment, however, would perhaps still remains hidden. Then another trunk, and still another would be attacked in the same fashion.

During the confusion, my mother reclining on her divan would converse softly with congenial spirits; but should the garment not be forthcoming the ring-master within her was instantly resuscitated, cracking the whip. We would then show greater nimbleness, and "Find the Garment" became more than an ordinary game. This hubbub was very trying to my brother's nerves. To case them he would drum on the window panes of the next room and whistle as loud as his weak blowing apparatus permitted.

When travelling, the twenty-two trunks became still more unmanageable. Some would get lost on the way; others preferring another destiny would remain in the luggage van. Sometimes half the number would be left at the "Consigne" and the rest sent to the hotel. The maid invariably made the wrong choice. Never did we arrive anywhere without some tragic confusion of the sort.