asked Janet. "I didn't know you'd made any,
Aunt Sallie."

"It isn't exactly ice-cream," answered Uncle Toby's housekeeper. "It's a
sort of snow-cream I made, but maybe you children will like it."

"Sure we will!" cried the boys.

"Will you have it now, or the plum pudding?" Aunt Sallie wanted to know.

"Oh, is there plum pudding, too?" Janet asked, in surprise.

"Yes," nodded Aunt Sallie. "Nice, hot plum pudding!"

"Let's have the pudding last," suggested Lola. "The snow-cream will make
us cold and the plum pudding will make us warm again."

"A good idea," said Uncle Toby, with a laugh. "I hope none of the
children gets ill," he thought to himself. "Their folks will say I gave
them too much Thanksgiving. But they look all right now," he added, as
he scanned the happy faces.

Aunt Sallie served the snow-cream. It was rather like a frozen pudding,
being made of clean snow beaten up with milk, eggs, sugar, and flavoring
extract.

The children made away with this, and then Aunt Sallie went to the
kitchen to get the hot plum pudding. She was gone a few minutes when she
came hurrying back into the dining room, a strange look on her face.

"It's gone!" she cried to Uncle Toby.

"What?" he asked.

"The plum pudding! Some one has taken it!"

CHAPTER XIX

SKYROCKET IS GONE

Uncle Toby first looked around the table at the double row of faces of
the children. All showed as much surprise as had Aunt Sallie when she
had come in with the news about the pudding being gone. At first Uncle
Toby had an idea that one of the boys had taken the dessert for a joke,
hiding it away in some nook. But one look at the faces of Tom, Ted, and
Harry showed Uncle Toby that this had not happened.

"Where did you put the pudding, Aunt Sallie?" Uncle Toby wanted to know.

"Right inside the kitchen pantry, on the back shelf near the window."

"Was the window open, Aunt Sallie?"

"Just a little crack, yes, Uncle Toby. I opened it when I set the
pudding near it so it would cool a little before the children ate it."

"That accounts for it then!" exclaimed Mr. Bardeen. "Skyrocket reached
in through the open window and took the pudding!"

There was a gasp of surprise from the children at this, and Ted
exclaimed:

"Oh, it couldn't have been our dog, Uncle Toby! He's been right here in
the room all the while."

"Yes, that's so," added Aunt Sallie. "And, anyhow, the window wasn't
open wide enough for Skyrocket to get his hea